How To Winterize Foxglove Plants?

Winter can be a tricky time – for both people and plants! The cold temperatures and harsh weathers can cause havoc with a lot of our favorite flowers. If you have been wondering how to winterize foxglove plants, you are certainly not alone. Let’s learn all about how to do this together.

How To Winterize Foxglove Plants

Winterizing foxglove plants is an essential part of ensuring that they come up again year after year, and that you are not left with gaps in your garden.

These are relatively hardy plants, but they will appreciate a little extra care to keep them safe from the coldest of the winter weather.

1. Unlike many plants in your garden, it is not recommended to deadhead foxglove plants, if you want them to come back up again.
2. Leave the flowers, and allow the foxglove to produce seeds. This will not only encourage it to come back, but also means that you have some free seeds!
3. Cut the plant back after it has seeded, and remove any debris and leaves, spent flowers or twigs that are around the plant on the ground.
4. This prevents any pests and insects from setting up home near your foxgloves, ready to wreak havoc in the spring!
5. Once you have cleared the area, cover it with a layer of mulch 3-5 inches thick. This will keep your foxgloves warm.
6. Mulching will also add slow release nutrients to the soil, which will help your foxgloves when they pop back up in the spring.
7. You can also erect a protective barrier, if you are worried about cold winds scorching the roots of your foxglove.

It is not too difficult to protect foxgloves from the weather, and they are hardier than you might think.

Giving them just a bit of extra TLC in the colder months will reward you with stronger, healthier plants in the spring.

Will Foxgloves Survive The Winter?

Foxgloves, like the majority of plants, enter a dormant phase in the winter, and you would be forgiven for thinking that they are done for!

However, they are relatively cold hardy, and should survive all but the very harshest and coldest of winters.

Foxgloves are broadly divided into herbaceous perennials, and those which remain evergreen throughout the year.

The perennials will die back completely in the winter, and, depending on the particular species, may or may not flower the following year.

You can keep your foxgloves alive during the winter – even if they are not showing leaves or flowers – by taking just a little extra care with them.

• Cover the soil around the roots of the plant, after it has died back, to keep it warm.
• You can use cloth sacking, mulch, manure or compost – all these things offer some protection from the cold.
• If you live in an area where the winters are seriously cold, you can dig up the root of your foxglove and store it to be replanted in the spring.

How Do I Know If My Foxgloves Are Biennial Or Perennial?

Working out which type of foxglove you have, if you have lost the seed packet or it has self seeded, can be tricky.

If you do not know which type of foxglove you are growing, it is best to wait and see what it does during the growing season.

• Biennial foxgloves produce foliage (known as a rosette) in the first year, then flowers during the second year.
• Perennial foxgloves simply flower every year, year after year.

This is the best way to figure out which type of foxglove you have, if you aren’t sure what you have planted in your garden.

Here is a short article telling you all about biennial foxgloves…

…And one on perennial foxgloves.

What Do You Do With Foxgloves At The End Of The Season?

You have enjoyed the beautiful flowers of your foxgloves, and you want to know if you can continue to enjoy them, right?

In order to encourage the best growth from your foxgloves, it is important to work out what you do with them at the end of the growing season.

1. Deadhead the spent blooms, which can encourage a second flush of flowering later in the season.
2. You can also simply leave them to go to seed, and either collect the seed or allow it to sow itself naturally around your garden.
3. If your foxgloves are biennial, you should dig them up after they have gone to seed, as there will be no more flowering and the dying plants can look unsightly.
4. Perennial foxgloves should be cut right back in the autumn, after they have finished their flowering.
5. Cutting them back in this way will ensure that they bounce back in the spring, ready to bring more beauty to your borders.

This video is the perfect thing to watch if you want to know what to do with your foxgloves once they have finished blooming:

Do You Cut Back Foxgloves In Winter?

Cutting plants back, although it may feel a little cruel, is actually a great way to encourage new growth the following year.

If you cut your biennial foxgloves back in the winter after their first year, they will reward you with beautiful blooms the following year.

Cutting back the perennial types will do them no harm at all – and it fact it can benefit the plant to not have to deal with that old growth.

If your biennial foxglove has flowered that year, you may as well cut it back as it won’t grow the following year.

Hopefully you are now a little more informed about what happens to foxgloves in the winter, and how you can best take care of them so that they don’t die completely.

Remember to not despair – as you can see, there are many ways to winterize your foxglove plants, so that they can bounce back another day!