Growing Foxglove: A Complete Profile
By Growing Home Greens Team · August 10, 2026
Foxglove produces some of the most dramatic flower spikes of any garden biennial, tall stalks lined with tubular, often speckled blooms. It’s also the source of digoxin, a real heart medication, which is a way of saying every part of this plant is toxic if eaten, not just mildly irritating.
A biennial that mostly waits a year
Transplanting is the recommended method: start seed indoors 10 to 12 weeks before your last frost, pressing it into the mix or leaving it uncovered since it needs light to germinate. Germination takes 14 to 21 days at 65-70°F. Space plants 9 to 18 inches apart, tighter for cut-flower rows and wider for a mixed border. It’s hardy in zones 4-8.
Most foxglove is a true biennial, spending its first year as a low rosette and only sending up its flower spike in year two. A few cultivars, like ‘Camelot’, are bred to bloom in their first year instead, worth seeking out specifically if the two-year wait doesn’t fit your plans.
A genuine toxicity, not a minor caution
Every part of foxglove is toxic if ingested, and the plant is the historical source of digitalis-based heart medications, a serious enough compound that accidental poisoning is a real medical concern. Site it somewhere pets and children won’t be tempted to touch or taste it, and wash hands after handling.
Harvest and deadheading
Cut stems for a vase once the bottom third of the flowers on a spike have opened, since the rest continue opening after cutting. Deadheading spent spikes on plants left in the garden encourages additional bloom rather than letting the plant set seed and finish for the season.
Foxglove has no recorded companions or antagonists in our data. See the full companion guide for foxglove for how it’s tracked. Its height makes it a good back-of-border anchor in the Garden Designer, placed somewhere out of reach of pets or kids given its toxicity.
Source: Foxglove (Digitalis): Key Growing Information, Johnny’s Selected Seeds.
Companion planting guide for Foxglove · Find your planting dates
Typically viable in USDA zones 4-8. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.
Method: Start indoors: Start indoors from seed, then transplant outside. Foxglove needs a head start most zones can't give it by direct-sowing alone.
See exact start-indoors, direct-sow, and harvest dates for your zone →
How many Foxglove plants fit per square foot?
Spacing: 1 per square foot (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 2-5 ft.
Varieties worth considering
- Straight-species foxglove (Digitalis purpurea): Johnny's Selected Seeds sells this species in named color strains, plus first-year-blooming types like 'Camelot' for gardeners who don't want to wait through a full biennial cycle. The species covers the standard two-year timeline; check the specific listing if first-year bloom matters to you. (source)
- 'Camelot' series foxglove (best for: first-year bloom): Johnny's Selected Seeds sells this series, in colors like lavender, rose, white and cream, describing it as blooming the first year from seed, the pick for gardeners who don't want to wait out the species' normal two-year cycle. (source)
- 'Pink Gin' foxglove (best for: classic shell-pink color): Johnny's Selected Seeds describes this as a popular shell-pink color, a straight-species biennial option distinct from the first-year-blooming Camelot hybrids above. (source)
Cited from the source shown next to each variety. We haven't grown these ourselves yet, so treat this as a research-backed starting point, not a personal endorsement.
Where to buy foxglove seeds
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Some links on this page also go to other retailers we may earn a commission from as an affiliate, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend products with a genuine consensus of positive, independent reviews. See the sources cited on each item.
See it growing
Search YouTube for "growing foxglove" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)
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Growing Foxglove: A dramatic, spike-flowered biennial that's the source of the heart medication digoxin, and toxic in every part, so site it away from pets and kids.
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