By the time they stop flowering the lowermost seed pods are usually ripe and starting to split open (each pod contains hundreds of seeds), so I don't think you need to worry that they won't ripen.
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
HI, agreed with Bob, i collect them for the next year but there is no correct time to pick the stems, you just have to try to catch them before the wind blows them away,I only had one Foxglove this year though because i didn't prepare 2 years ago-the year before last
What would be spectacular is a sterile fox-glove, because these would hold onto their bells a lot longer. Every time a bumble bee goes into a bell and pollinates it the next day tht bell drops which is far too soon. Mine is "Strawberry" and produces profuse side shoots that flower almost as tall as the original flower spike but the bells still fall in a shower every morning. These things should be called falling-gloves if you ask me. What is nice about the newer ones is that they flower all around the spike. I'm wondering if those fantastic looking hybrids and new colours are sterile because they're always depicted on the net full of bells, top to bottom!? I grow as winter annuals as we are in the tropics and our cool winter is the only time they grow, yes we have tropical bumble bees. As someone was saying the bees themselves don't seem interested.
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By the time they stop flowering the lowermost seed pods are usually ripe and starting to split open (each pod contains hundreds of seeds), so I don't think you need to worry that they won't ripen.
HI, agreed with Bob, i collect them for the next year but there is no correct time to pick the stems, you just have to try to catch them before the wind blows them away,I only had one Foxglove this year though because i didn't prepare 2 years ago-the year before last
Thanks everybody.