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Companion plant for foxgloves

MilaB
11 years ago

I have some perennial foxgloves (I am forgetting the exact variety) that have lovely yellow flowers, but when they are done blooming, their foliage is pretty unimpressive (they are young divisions, so maybe they will look a little better as they mature). I am looking for a good plant that will fill in around them, without crowding them. Right now I have some creeping jenny, but that is a little shorter than I want. I love the way cat mint sprawls around in other parts of my garden to fill in holes of this sort, but this part of the garden is probably a little shady for that - I guess I would call it partial shade. Most of the other flowers in the bed are pink or purple. Any suggestion?

Comments (12)

  • ianna
    11 years ago

    Creeping jenny is invasive so I would hesitate using that in your yard.

    cat mint sounds good. How about salvias? or Delphiniums, daisies, phlox, astlibes,geraniums.

  • on_greenthumb
    11 years ago

    I have mine planted next to some veronica candles (on the side it gets a little more sun) and on the other side astilbe. My foxgloves haven't flowered yet, but the veronica looks pretty and the astilbe foliage is a nice contrast. I've given them lots of room to seed and spread out.

  • grandmachris
    11 years ago

    Hardy geraniums would be a good choice or lady's mantle. My adenophera (Ladybells) blooms at the same time but that's two
    spiky flowers about the same height.

    Chris

  • MilaB
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    What I am looking for is something that will kind of drape over and fill in around the scraggily unattractive leaves of these foxgloves (once they are done flowering, there is just nothing there to want to look at, but I do so love them when they are flowering). I am thinking of something like a verbena, that would be the right size and would have the sort of cascading habit I am imagining, but not the right light requirements.

    It is funny how different plants are invasive some places and not others. I have never had a problem at all with my creeping jenny. I actually wish it was a little more aggressive in my garden.

  • MilaB
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I got some Lady's Mantle on sale at the nursery today, and now that I look at it, I think it will be perfect (also, looking at some of the more mature foxgloves in another part of the garden, I really think they will get more attractive as they grow in more). I will try to post a picture once I get it all planted.

  • cheleinri
    11 years ago

    The WWF combo was amsonia & ferns. They make it look so pretty. I have a whole row of the foxgloves in front of a hydrangea hedge with white astilbe and daylilies in the sunniest spot. The astilbe is just starting and the foxgloves are sort of 3/4 through their bloom cycle. None of it really sprawls on top of the foxglove foliage, but I guess I never noticed it was a problem. The geraniums previously mentioned would do it for sprawling.

  • MilaB
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I normallly like foxglove foliage just fine. These foxgloves have much longer, thinner leaves than my other foxgloves, so when they are immature, after I clip off the spent flowers, all that is left are a few very long leaves, that splay out across the ground, leaving lots of bare dirt all around them. And it didn't help matters that my recent house sitter didn't look after the garden well (arg!), and they kind of shriveled and yellowing. But I found a more mature one in another part of the garden, and it is much fuller, with more tiers of foliage, so it doesn't look so bare around it.

  • cheleinri
    11 years ago

    I do think you'll find the foliage okay when they are happy- especially since this kind of foxglove (at least in my experience) seeds itself like crazy and you end up with very little bare ground..just clumps of foxgloves.

  • cheleinri
    11 years ago

    testing file upload

  • Qetrina Swetlikoff
    3 years ago

    Hostas would also make a beautiful base for the foxglove 💜

  • cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
    3 years ago

    I planted some digitalis/foxgloves this year in a bed with hosta, ferns, amsonia, and astilbe. There are also other shade plants, but not right near the digitalis. Hoping for a pretty show next year.


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