But as I understand it, even the pollen of a white form can carry the recessive gene which will produce purple flowers. It doesn’t need to be pollen from a purple flower which is what was said here …
… If you studiously remove all pink/purple forms before they flower then you will keep the white strain but once a purple plant flowers it will release pollen which will produce purple flowers in subsequent years. …
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
If the purple flowering plants are heterozygotes then somewhere in their genetic make up there is a white flowered gene which could be expressed when it flowers.
I rather like the shading you get as they mix and turn back to purple, with clumps of pale and darker pinks all together. I put a few white ones in each year to keep the variation going. There seem to be two types of 'alba' variants - some are pure white and some are white with darker spots. Are they both just 'alba', or is there a specific name for one or other?
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Spotting of foxglove flowers is also genetically determined, but by separate genes to the flower colour genes. Darker spots are dominant, so it is most likely that spots in either white, or purple flowers will be dark.
How can you lie there and think of England When you don't even know who's in the team
Wow. First, thank you for this wealth of information! Everyone seems to be so knowledgeable- it's hard to find specific information like this online. The white foxgloves I have growing, have purple spots- which I don't mind. What variety is that?
My takeaway from everyone's advice and insight seems to be that I need to grow seeds each year to ensure white flowers. Are there any recommendations for the best variety of seed? I'd like a tall variety.
I'm posting a pic of my foxgloves that have just bloomed (we've had a particularly wet and cold spring here). Sorry, this picture wants to come in sideways. The foxglove in the foreground is a beautiful ombre- starting white at the top until it reaches purple at the bottom. Part of me wants to let these flowers do their thing, but I've worked so hard to achieve a white garden and I love the way it looks in the evening.
I'd remove the non white one. and save the seed from the white one. Sow them fresh and select the pure green seedlings as they grow. You'll have lots of whites in no time
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Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
The natural form of many of these plants is blue/purple.
This is no coincidence, this is the colour that bees see best.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
I rather like the shading you get as they mix and turn back to purple, with clumps of pale and darker pinks all together. I put a few white ones in each year to keep the variation going. There seem to be two types of 'alba' variants - some are pure white and some are white with darker spots. Are they both just 'alba', or is there a specific name for one or other?
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
My takeaway from everyone's advice and insight seems to be that I need to grow seeds each year to ensure white flowers. Are there any recommendations for the best variety of seed? I'd like a tall variety.
I'm posting a pic of my foxgloves that have just bloomed (we've had a particularly wet and cold spring here). Sorry, this picture wants to come in sideways. The foxglove in the foreground is a beautiful ombre- starting white at the top until it reaches purple at the bottom. Part of me wants to let these flowers do their thing, but I've worked so hard to achieve a white garden and I love the way it looks in the evening.
‘… Most Foxgloves are biennial, establishing and growing leaves in the first year, followed by flowers and seed production in the second year…’
An example of copywriters’ sleight of hand 🙄
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.