foxgloves

lynne24

good morning everyone

i have foxgloves for the first time this summer, i planted them in the front garden, they where lovely, i have just returned from holiday and they have been battered by the wind, they are also facing out to the road so cant see them properly, my question is can i move them and when, i want to put them in my back garden against an 8ft wall, where they wil have more protetection, can anyone help, thanks 

 

nutcutlet

No, don't move them, they're biennials and will be finished when they've flowered. Save the seed and grow it, (or buy some more) where you want it for next year and future years

lynne24

thanks nutcutlet, can you tell me how to store the seeds, and i know im a bit thick ha ha , but does biennial mean every other year

Welshonion

The flowers always point outwards!  Biennial means you sow the seeds this year and the plants flower next year.  

I would harvest the ripe seeds and sow them immediately.  Take your example from the plant, it sheds the seed as soon as it is ripe.

nutcutlet

Biennial means when it's done what Welshonion describes, it dies. So it's flowering now, it will produce seed which you sow where you want them, (there'll be plenty, just throw it on the ground), and then you can remove the original plant.

Occasionally they'll go another year but they don't perform well

lynne24

thanks  welshonion and nutcutlet, dont know where i would be without this site 

 

Jim Macd

The best way to store seeds is in a paper envelope. I make mine from a sheet of paper. Describing how to do it isn't easy. I was shown at college, I'll see if I can post a video. 

Jim Macd

Here you go, it's still uploading but it should be live Seed Packet in about 15 minutes. It's best to make the envelope first then fill it by using another piece of paper folded in half. You can then pop the filled envelopes in the fridge until you're ready to use the seed. Don't forget to label the envelope before you fil it. 

 

Dovefromabove

But the easiest way is to wait until the seedpods just start to open , then cut the stalk off, take it to where you want foxgloves to grow, and wave and shake it about over some ground (dig and rake it over first).  You'll soon have baby foxgloves 

Jim Macd

Yes, it is, however foxgloves are biennial so you want to keep some seed for the year after and it isn't always convenient to carry a big stick full of falling seeds around with you or perhaps you want to sow into plugs for potting on so you can plant out large plants that will survive competition from whatever else is growing or you don't have bare soil to wave seeds over. I know I certainly don't have any bare patches of soil. They'd need weeding and I"ve got enough to do.  Some foxgloves will of course germinate against all odds since there are thousands and thousands of seeds on each stalk but if too many germinate in one patch you'll get weedy plants with hardly any flowers on or as happens more often in my garden you'll get one or two weedy plants that have had to compete with everything else. Anyway I'm sure you're armed with lots of ideas now.

lynne24

thanks again everyone for your great advice