Foxglove advice needed

[WinningStudio]

I bought a foxglove plant last year and i was really impressed with it and i am thinking of growing some from seed.

I think i have seen some varieties that flower in the first year which is what i am after.

So can i sow seeds now that will flower this year and anyone know which variety ?

[Guest]

I don't know what others experiences are but I have always found that claim a bit misleading as the ones I have done in the past - you are expected to start the plants early in the year and the flowers tend to be smaller.

[veggiechicken]

If you left the one you already have to set seed, they will probably have shed them near where your plant is. Look around, you may find some seedlings nearby.

[Martin H]

What VC said. Foxgloves produce huge quantities of dust-like seeds which come up in all sorts of places in the garden. So I just move them to where I want them.

Curiously, the seed never seems to grow in the places I want the flowers.

Common or garden foxgloves really like to be biennial, i.e. they grow a nice big plant the first year then flower in late spring the next year. Sometimes they'll stay on for another year but they are never as good.

When I've sown seed, it's been after the spring rush is over in the greenhouse and there's enough space to do them. April is plenty early enough to make nice big plants. I'll do some this year if I can't find enough self-seeded ones scattered about.

If you sow seed now, you might get some flowers late in the year but they won't be top quality.

[burnie]

I grow the wild ones and they are proper perennials, grow one year and flower the next, I then spread the seed from the plant to grow roughly where I want them, after a couple of years the parent plant withers and dies.

[DannyK]

If you want to be adventurous try a pack of mixed species seed.

I've had some very interesting plants, so far unidentified!

First year flowering very dubious.

You can tell which common one's seedlings are white, but need to google as memory duff!