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Foxgloves not flowering
Hi all,
I grew some Digitalis Purpurea from seed last year in plant pots and planted them out this Spring.
They are now looking really big but there is no sign of a flower stem. If they haven't sent one up by now, does that mean that they won't flower till next year ?
Thanks,
Jimmy
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I've found this sometimes happens if the plants didn't make sufficient growth in their first season for one reason or another. What usually happens is that they will flower next year, but you will get multiple flower spikes ... worth looking forward to
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Nearly all Digitalis spp. are biennials ; (grow the first year and flower the second) ; expect good results next year .
I guess I've learnt that they need good growth in their first year to flower the next. Otherwise it's a 3 year process !!
Thanks,
I'd get some more seed going now to put plants in the garden this Autumn / next spring too so that you'll have foxgloves the following year too and so on otherwise you'll only get flowering foxgloves every other year.
Ive had the opposite experience. I left an old foxglove plant in a pot on the patio last summer and by mid-Oct I had dozens of tiny seeedlings growing between the paving slabs. Not intentional !
I 'dug' some up and potted them over-winter. They are all flowering merrily now and I'm going to do the same this year although I'll choose a better place to leave the old plant ! They haven't grown very tall though - the plants on sale in a local garden centre are nearly five feet tall, mine are half that.