PHOTO: Craig Anderson
how to buy a foxglove
When you’re shopping for a foxglove at the garden center, how do you know which plants are a good buy and which plants to pass by? Well, there are a few things to look for:
First off, foxglove is a biennial, meaning the first year there’s just a rosette of foliage. The plant flowers the second year, sets seed and then dies. So pass by plants already in bloom because they probably won’t bloom again. And those spindly and stunted blooms you see at upper right aren’t why you’re buying foxglove anyway.
The nice, healthy clump of foliage in the pot at lower right is what you should look for. Peer down into the leaves to see if you can see any buds forming. Buds let you know that if you get the plant home and in the ground, it should have decent blooms this year. If that foliage has no buds, you know that it’ll either bloom later in the year or next year.
