Unusually this garden variety of foxglove has silvery leaves with spikes of white flowers that are popular with bees and other pollinators. It grows to 70cm tall and 25cm across in partial shade or full sun and a moist but well-drained soil. The flowers are produced from May to July in its second year.
After planting, foxgloves spend their first year rooting in, growing leaves and building up strength, and then flower the year after.
This plant will gently self-seed and naturalise in your garden if you leave the main flowering spike to drop its seeds. Alternatively, remove the main flowering spike before it flowers to get higher numbers of side shoots and flowering spikes.
Caution: this plant is poisonous if eaten.
Foxglove / Digitalis purpurea subsp. heywoodii 'Silver Fox'
Position: Flower border
Flowering months: May_/ Jun / Jul
Light: Full sun / Mix of sun and shade / Dappled shade
Soil: Clay / Loam / Chalk / Sand
Tested in our local soil (t.i.o.l.s.): Yes
Drainage: Well drained / Moist but well-drained (never waterlogged)
Life cycle: Biennial (flowers in its second year and then dies)
Hardiness: Fully hardy (in Bristol winters)
Over winter: Partially dies back (semi-evergreen)