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SOS - Drooping Wilty Foxglove - Pls!

rebeccamM6CA_Gn6rebeccamM6CA_Gn6 Posts: 133
in Problem solving
Planted a foxglove bought online back in March, sun in the morning and shade all afternoon. But since it has started t produce a flower spike the past week, it has suddenly started drooping down - very sad! I also water it super well almost every / or every other evening (knowing that newly planted plants need watering more and especially foxgloves!). Soil wise I have a clay soil but I dug large a hole and put in general peat free compost and slow release fertiliser. I have just watered the floxglove again which in 5 mins has righted itself again :D , but it seems strange to me to have to water every single day (this watering being just 16 hours after the previous soak)? What can be the issue here? Desperate to have a lovely tall spike as I adore them! Any help much appreciated :-) 

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  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited May 2020
    Do I understand that you dug a hole, filled it with peat free compost and planted the foxglove in that?

    Or did you prepare a planting site by digging it over and then incorporated some compost into the soil by working it in?

    The first would not hold moisture for very long at all, of if the hole is thick clay it would act like a sump. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    It may just be the really strong sun at this time of year exhausting it. The leaves are loosing water quicker than the roots can replace it, so the leaves droop.
    Does it look ok first thing in the morning/later in the evening?

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • ju1i3ju1i3 Posts: 189
    even my hollyhock is drooping and they survive anything! this is extreme weather no rain (except once ) in 2 months
  • rebeccamM6CA_Gn6rebeccamM6CA_Gn6 Posts: 133
    Hello @Dovefromabove and thank you so much for your fast reply. I am afraid that as a beginner it was really more towards the first option above. Oh dear! What should I do?  It a really large bed and so I try to avoid walking around in as much as possible knowing that the soil is clay...I would be reluctant to move it - what do you suggest? Should i add compost over the top soil?




  • rebeccamM6CA_Gn6rebeccamM6CA_Gn6 Posts: 133
    @Pete.8 Thanks for the information! Yes it feel like August and all the plants in my south facing garden are very young + newly planted (as this garden was a barren wasteland when I moved in). I hadn't thought of that! Yes it is fine in the morning and fine in the evening (especially as i'm going around the garden like a lunatic with my watering can at 8pm every day ahaha). Luckily i'm here to keep watering....
  • ju1i3ju1i3 Posts: 189
    you could always leave it to recover overnight, things seem to

    it needs to learn to fend for itself - and you've been cossetting it
  • rebeccamM6CA_Gn6rebeccamM6CA_Gn6 Posts: 133
    @ju1i3 - Oh that is reassuring to hear indeed! The poor plants! Are you staking or just watering them back to life?
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    edited May 2020
    Think of it as part of your lockdown exercise plan :)
    Sounds like you'll need to keep at it too

    PS - they're really easy to grow from seed - I grow the white ones I sow seed in June and have massive plants in flower this time the following year.


    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    No don’t  move it now it’s got a flower spike. I would simply give it plenty of water (a good bucket full)  in the evenings ... that’ll give the soil the best chance to absorb the moisture and the plant the best chance to access it. 

    Foxgloves cope quite well with dry soil. I’m sure it’ll cope. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • ju1i3ju1i3 Posts: 189
    edited May 2020
    this is one of my foxgloves that self-seeded, has never been watered and looks quite happy, those hollyhocks (there are more out of view) also have never been watered and I'm not about to start - anything in the ground has to cope in my garden, I just water pots

    (should explain, the hollyhock that is drooping in the the back garden, self-seeded in a flowerbed which has been helped along so it hasn't had to be so independent)

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