There's a story about a fox trying to steal chickens from a farmer. Every time the fox got close to the coop, the chickens heard him coming, started squawking, and the farmer came out to chase him away. One day, a woodland fairy came to the fox and suggested he take the open blooms from a nearby flower and place one on each foot and try again. He did and was successful, stealing a chicken for dinner. The plant he used was the foxglove. You may not believe the story but you can't deny foxgloves are beautiful flowers.
Foxgloves are biennial or short-lived perennials depending on the variety. Most are two- to four-feet tall and come in a wide range of colors. 'Camelot Mix' is one of the hardiest and tallest. Yellow foxglove and strawberry foxglove are short-lived perennials with colorful blossoms on a two-foot tall plant.
Foxgloves grow well as the backdrop in a flower garden and look best when planted in groups and allowed to self-sow. In fact, biennial plants must drop seeds each summer to form small plants in fall and flower the following year. Deadhead spent flower stalks after blooming, but allow some of the secondary flower stalks to set seed in late summer. In my experience, you don't have to leave many stalks to drop enough seed to have plenty of seedlings. Thin seedlings to one-foot apart in spring and mulch well.
Foxgloves can grow in full sun or partial shade. Plant them with borage, alliums and poppies for great color combinations and to attract bees. One word of caution, though. Foxgloves contain digitalis and are poisonous, so keep them away from curious kids and pets.
Now for this week's tip: despite the recent spate of cold, icy weather, it's time to start tomato seeds indoors for transplanting into the garden in six weeks. Start seeds under grow lights using a heating pad to accelerate germination.
