Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
dancergrrrl

Foxgloves? Or??? HELP!

dancergrrrl
13 years ago

Hi all! I bought my house about two years ago and it has tons of these woodland looking plants. They are everywhere, pretty invasive, spreading out and taking over flower beds! My mom said they are foxgloves. I have searched and searched and of course foxgloves all show flowers, eventually. These have never flowered. They are just little green plants close to the ground.

I tried to find a picture of what they look like in my yard, and the one at the very bottom of this page is what they look like:

http://www.judywoods.dial.pipex.com/plants/foxglove.html

If they eventually flower and have the beautiful foxglove flowers I want to keep them! BUT, they have never flowered so I don't know if they are "flowering foxgloves."

Please help!

Comments (7)

  • morz8 - Washington Coast
    13 years ago

    Digitalis purpurea is common throughout the PNW. The plants are usually biennial or short lived perennials and will self sow.

    That means a leafy rosette of foliage the first year, flowers the second. They will sometimes die out after flowering to be replaced with new self sown seedlings, or in our mild climate may live another year or two to produce more flowers.

    If you had the clumps of leaves last year and what you have is really foxglove (digitalis), you will surely have flowers this year. If you find they are 'invading' your beds and taking over space, crowding other plants, there's no need to keep them all. Take out what has placed itself inappropriately, enjoy those you've left.

  • jean001a
    13 years ago

    Posting pictures of your own plants rather than "something that looks like it" will be more successful in determining the ID of what you have.

    Can you do so?

  • gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
    13 years ago

    There's a number of common weeds that look very much like the basal rosette of foliage of an unbloomed or seedling foxglove. Jean's advice of posting a photo of what is growing in YOUR garden would certainly be more helpful. Or, you can wait to see if the plants do indeed bloom this season to confirm.

  • parkerc123_hotmail_com
    12 years ago

    I had a few foxgloves in my garden last year. I was really happy that they seemed to have multiplied this year...but sadly, not one of them have produced a flower. Is this usual?

  • alaMel
    12 years ago

    As far as I know (which is little) foxgloves are biennial plants. Which means they only bloom every other year. Some other biennials I know of are Hibiscus trees and hollyhocks. There might be some that bloom every year but like I said I'm pretty new to gardening also.

  • rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
    12 years ago

    The definition of a biennial plant is one that germinates from seed and develops vegetatively the first year, usually in a rosette as Mor has described. The SECOND year (hence: biennial), these plants develop a flower stalk and begin the reproductive stage of life. After they set seed, these plants will typically die. Again, Mor has pretty much explained the usual biennial life cycle.

    I know of no Hibiscus that are biennials, but hollyhocks often are. Besides foxgloves, Sweet William, Stock, parsley, carrots, and the Brassicas (cabbage family) are all biennial plants. Some of our most hated weeds fit into this category,too, lol.

  • alaMel
    12 years ago

    I know, weird. I couldn't tell you much about it. It was a miniature tree. I'm pretty sure it was tagged as hibiscus. It didn't seed out (sorry for the misinformation on biennial, I did state my knowledge was limited here), but it only bloomed every other year. I got tired of digging it up every year and with limited space to keep it happy, it hit the trash heap after its demise a few years back. I would've loved to keep it, but it was just unrealistic for us. Maybe I'll stop by that restaurant that has them out front and ask what they're called. Really cute though.

Sponsored
Landscape Management Group
Average rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars27 Reviews
High Quality Landscaping Services in Columbus