We've never managed to have extra foxgloves to sell. However, with other biennials, the trick seems to be to have somebody who knows about them and can 'sell' them. Basically, somebody who has enough familiarity with growing them so they can explain, in incredible detail if necessary, what has to be done to keep them coming back.

I don't think balloon flowers (Platycodon grandiflorus) are biennials; they do self-sow, but the parent plant doesn't die off - at least that's the type I have. I treat them more like Campanula persicifolia, the peach-leaf bellfower. Plenty of seedlings, but perennial.

I planted foxglove just once, and I have flowers every year. Apparently some of the earliest and some of the latest blooms set seed, and those matured either earlier or later than normal. Or maybe some of the seed didn't germinate until the following spring - that might also have explained the results.

Also, the plants don't exactly die after the first, main flowering period. If they're cut back and watered, they produce a second set of flowers from the base. The second crop isn't as tall, and there are often multiple stems. It's a really long season (as I said on your other thread).

I bought a six-pack, and I'm not sure if you plan to sell those at your sale.

Hello,

Not knowing much about foxglove, other than making digitalis, a heart drug from it, I searched and found what I think is an interesting website. Most of the info is from 1922 England. I found it an interesting read with morning coffee and just thought someone else might too.

"Description---The normal life of a Foxglove plant is two seasons, but sometimes the roots, which are formed of numerous, long, thick fibres, persist and throw up flowers for several seasons."

"Synonyms---Witches' Gloves. Dead Men's Bells. Fairy's Glove. Gloves of Our Lady. Bloody Fingers. Virgin's Glove. Fairy Caps. Folk's Glove. Fairy Thimbles." Personally, I prefer Foxglove to Dead Men's Bells.

Jane

Here is a link that might be useful: Botanical.com

I think the biennial Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) would make a good sale plant. Very easy to start from seed, and you get zillions of seedlings. Started in the Spring the year before (and it may not be too late to start now), you would have large clumps of foliage by next May, and they would likely be sending up the budding stalks for the flowers.

D. purpurea usually decline after the 2nd year, or if they get ratty, I just pull them up after blooming. But I've had some plants come back a 3rd year, especially if I deadhead the flower stalks before they go to seed, so the plant doesn't exhaust itself producing so much seed. I start it from seed every year to be certain to have blooming plants, it's so stunning in bloom.

Another biennial you could consider is Dianthus barbatus. I started some from seed last year and the blooms were fantastic. Also, Columbine. They both bloom in May - so the buyers at your sale would either see buds, the beginning of blooms, or they would be blooming shortly after they buy the plants.

This is what the sweet william looked like on May 26th "mixed doubles" -
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Peak bloom on June 9th -
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PS Columbine isn't really biennial, more of a short-lived perennial. I've had seedlings die over the first winter, and others like Aquilegia canadensis (native eastern Columbine) which are 5 years old now and going strong.

But it blooms 2nd year from seed in May-June which would be great for the sale. Try McKana's Giants - early bloomer and gorgeous! These pics were taken May 13th -

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Interesting discussion.

For years I bought Lupines at Russell's. And I diligently deadheaded my blooms. And the Lupines never came back the following year. Nobody at Russell's ever told me that they were biennial and that I needed to let them self sow. But I eventually learned that they were biennial.

This year I winter sowed Lupines Russell Hybrid Mix. And I bought another pkg to winter sow this coming winter. The package is labeled perennial.

I guess this is my long way of saying that I would have been thrilled if someone told me that Lupines were biennial. And told me how to propogate them. People love Lupines, and I think they would make a great addition to your plant sale.

One more note on foxglove - I was thrilled to find a six-pack of a plant called perennial foxglove, which is smaller, has different foliage, always has yellow flowers, but is a true perennial.

If you like foxglove and think this would solve the problem of these plants disappearing from your garden, you might be tempted to try these. However, IMHO, it has none of the charm of the biennials, with flowers that are nowhere near as spectacular, green foliage, and a fairly rampant habit, even in shade. If I could 'take back' planting these, I would.

Pixie lou, I think lupines are also short-lived perennials; we had a discussion about this a few months back on another thread. I just googled this to refresh my memory and read "The species are mostly herbaceous perennial plants 0.3 - 1.5 m (0.98 - 4.9 ft) tall, but some are annual plants ... "

This doesn't make much difference in terms of your sale, but I had to jump to the defense of the perennial yellow foxglove, digitalis grandiflora! I LOVE mine!

I agree fully, they are not nearly as spectacular as the biennial varieties, but they are absolutely no-maintenance (except cutting off the spent bloom stalks if you don't want reseeding), grow and bloom in every condition, have beautiful (if small) pale/soft yellow blooms, bloom for several weeks, and multiply nicely (not overly aggressively in my garden). Here's an old picture with a VERY cheap camera (hard to tell here, but these foxgloves go perfectly with the yellowish edging of hosta Regal Splendor).

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Resume the discussion of plants for sale!
:)
Dee

I'm with diggerdee on the "normal" perennial foxgloves. It is shorter, which is nice, and it sure has been hardy in my garden. The butter yellow blooms happen to be a favorite of mine and blend with many colors. I especially like them with the blue found in Campanula persicifolia, Peach-leaf Bellflower in blue. When I found them they were growing in a wild clump of neglected mess by our stone wall. If they can survive that and this past winter, they can survive anything!

It's probably the difference between your zones, 5 & 6, and mine, which is 7; here, they're a bit too aggressive. And yes, they grow in the worst conditions - which is exactly where mine are, in dry shade. Mine just never look very good, possibly for that reason. Or, maybe if I took care of them I'd like them more - and vice versa!

LOL, deanna, I actually had written "butter yellow" and then changed it to soft/pale yellow, only because I thought others might think butter is a brighter yellow (especially with so many people eating margarine these days, lol!)

DTD, I can possibly see where that one zone could make a difference. I do make a point now to deadhead most of mine. I never got around to it before and they do like to reseed. However, even so I would not call it rampant here, not even aggressive, so maybe the zone does matter. But I am getting a lot of them around the yard and so now only leave a few up to reseed and cut back the rest. I actually like that they reseed in different spots, clear across the yard, because by being in different spots (some sun, some shade, some half and half) I get different bloom times on them.

BTW, deanna, some blue campanula persicifolia happened to reseed in that bed I have in the photo above, and bloomed beautifully with the foxgloves! I was surprised the bellflower did so well here as this bed gets about 30 seconds of morning sun and that's it.

Sorry to hijack the thread! That's it from me on digitalis grandiflora!

Dee

Thank you all so much for your comments! As always, most of your advice was very good and in this instance, some of it made me laugh. I appreciate your help. Thanks again.

Marlene,

I don't know if the seeds you are talking about are from me, but if I assume that they are then.

The balloon plant seeds are from a perennial balloon flower plant that was in my mother's garden for at least 10 years and after she passed away, I dug them up and moved them to my beds and they have been in my beds for almost 11 years.

As far as I know, balloon plants are a perennial plant.

The foxglove from me have been perennials in my beds for 8 years. They self sow throughout the bed and I am forever pulling up seedlings, potting them up for the swap and giving them away.
BUT, the main 8 plants I have had have been their for 8 years and bloom every year.
I know they aren't reseeds because they are huge plants and they bloom every year with at least several stems on them.

I originally WS them winter of 2003-2004, planted them out in late spring in hunks and they have been blooming since spring of 2005.

One nice selling point for them would be to tell customers that the plants do not die back in the fall, but rather stay green clumps of leaves all through the winter.
Being that they are right at the foundation on one side of my house, as the snow melts in that bed, it pulls away from the foundation and it is so nice to see those green leaves of the foxglove in the dead of winter, when it is bitter cold out. Those leaves are right there to see.

My lupin, is also 8 years old and as long as the groundhog leaves it alone ( it is a favorite of groundhogs and if they find it, it is eaten down to the ground in about 0 minutes), It has been blooming every year for 7 years.
It is not a reseed as the plant grows at least 3 feet every year (after it's first year in the ground 7 years ago) and did not bloom the first year I planted it.

Seeds that I have collected from the main plant and WS have not bloomed until the second year, even ones that I sowed in the spring and planted out in the fall or kept in a pot till next year.

What I did find is that the leaves from the seedlings that I kept in pots died back more quickly, in the fall than the main plant.

I have also found with my lupin that the leaves, stems get real ratty looking, almost as if they have a rust on them. I have found that if you cut the stems with the leaves on them and the stems from the blooms back to the ground, a fresh crop of leaves will come up, grow only about 2 feet or sow and sometimes there will be a second flush of blooms as well.

The candylily/blackberry lily will not bloom the first year and they too are perennial, not a biennial. My plants have been growing, for 9 years now, started out with 4 seedlings that where divided 2 years ago and at that point where more than 25 plants. The divided clumps all bloomed the following spring after being divided the prior fall.

I don't know how well the plants will do being kept in pots over the winter, if you start them now, but I do know that they will germinate now, in the heat of the summer, I know people who have started them now, planted them in the ground in the fall, but they didn't bloom the following spring, it still took another year for them to bloom.
That doesn't mean to say that if you kept them in a good size pot, they wouldn't bloom next year, but they don't bloom until summer, so even if they where good size in the spring for the sale, you wouldn't know for sure if they will bloom until at least mid july if not later, when you start to see flower stems shoot up from the leaves of the plant.

Fran

Thank you Fran for your detailed response. Of course, these are your seeds! I appreciate your experience. One person of this forum whom I'm not sure wants to be named, sent me an email and I finally decided not to try to sow any biennials to sell for the Children's Hospital for several reasons. Mostly it has to do with customers not being seasoned gardeners and as a couple of people in this thread suggested to inform them of 'every other year' they are right but in a practical sense it would very hard to put in place - trust me! I've worked with Michelle Tarver ("Thecrazyplantlady" or "ontheteam") for three years now and she does an absolutely tremendous job (I'll let out the Elephant in the Room - Michelle was a premeie at CH but I won't say how many years ago!) There is a huge difference in being a charity sale where you do not want to disappoint anyone yet most of these customers are not very knowledgeable about the difference between annuals vs. perennials. The one best thing I have learned is the huge amount of human compassion that is out there.

I loved the comment concerning research from 1922 - what could be more precious? Sorry (even though some of it made me laugh) about starting a thread that seemed to reopen an old thread about biennials. Most of all, thank you all for you help.