BnQ foxgloves

Hi everyone,

i bought some foxgloves from BnQ the other day but they dont say on them if they are perennial or biennial, does anybody else have this problem or maybe know which they are? I did go back to BnQ and ask the only member of staff in the garden centre but it turns out he knows absoultely nothing about plants

Thanks

 

Thats what you get when you go to places like this im afraid
Garden centre staff have more knowledge put you pay through the nose. Nursery's are the place to go. Very reasonable with staff that know most things.
As for Foxgloves, they are biennial, although i have a few times, chopped them back after flowering and sometimes they flower for a second year.

G

 

Thats exactly what i thought as i was talking to the staff member. I went homebase afterwards though and the foxgloves they were selling were labelled as perennial.

 

Heh, heh, that's usually what the customer wants to hear!

However, if you let them seed around by leaving the spent flower head on long enough for the seeds to ripen you will probably get plenty more, just not where you put them orginally and they may not be the same colour.

Homebase probably wouldn't tell you that either - bad for business.

 

Foxgloves are considered by most to be biennial although a number of sources claim that they are short lived perennials either way let them self seed everywhere and afterwards give the old seed heads a good shake over the borders and your never be left wanting

 

Thanks Aesculus i hope so thats what i want to happen, i just hope they are not sterile or something would not surprise me, Madahhalia i think i can remember buying a plant once from homebase that had a label on it saying i was not allowed to propogate the plant in anyway after purchase without special permission from the supplier Which is why im a little worried they will be sterile, BnQ may have engineered them to die 3 months after purchase and not to self seed ...although i have seen a few bees going in and out the flowers so i think there must be some pollen there.

 

This is a truly hardy Digitalis - D.parviflora

 

your image appears to be broken longk

 

Are you browsing incognito? Doesn't work for me if I switch to incognito, but ok in normal mode.

 

I certainly wouldn't put it past them to fiddle about with plants if they could. Putting growth retardant on, for example, to keep things looking neat, cute and saleable.

Some cultivars are sterile due to the way they've been bred rather than BnQ's efforts, but I don't think that would apply to something as basic as a foxglove.

I think I have also seen labels saying propagation is prohibited but I don't know how much clout that has. How could anyone police what gardeners choose to do in their private gardens? Offering it for sale under the original name might be another matter. Anyway, how could you stop a foxglove propagating itself if it produced viable seed?