Foxglove - A Poisonous, Patient and Persistent Biennial Flower

Gardening, whether it is for vegetables or flowers, takes patience and persistence. Patience because it can take so long for flowers to bloom and vegetables to mature to that perfect stage for harvesting. Persistence because weeds, insects and animals are constantly attacking and trying to stop your best efforts in the garden.

Many years ago we planted some Foxglove in the perennial flower garden. As I did the Fall clean up in the perennial garden, I thought the Foxglove really embody the concepts of patience and persistence in the garden.

The picture above is a great example of what Foxglove look like when flowering. I wish I could say this was from my garden this summer but I can't. This is a Google image I found to show you what Foxglove look like when flowering.

Foxglove is a biennial flower that grow two to five feet tall and love lots of sun. You will often see them in purple, white and pink. Foxglove bloom in early to mid summer.

So, why do I think Foxglove are both patient and persistent? The answer lies in the fact that they are a biennial flower that are toxic to animals and small children. A biennial flower is not an annual or a perennial, but right in between. A biennial is a plant that completes its growing cycle over two years. The first year the plant consists of only green foliage. The second year is the payoff with the plant flowers and setting seed. Waiting two years for flowers on a plant takes patience for most people. The great thing about Foxglove is that if you let the flower go to seed it will naturally distribute the seed all over your garden and the two year cycle starts all over again with no work. The other crazy fact about Foxglove that make them persistent is that all parts of the plant are poisonous. Great care should be taken with young children and pets around Foxglove. If consumed, Foxglove will cause the person or animal's heart to slow down or beat irregularly. No wonder the rabbits and deer left all my Foxglove plants alone this year but happily ate all my other plants.

Here are two pictures of my perennial garden after being cleaned up a couple of weeks ago, along with a close up of a Foxglove plant at the end of the first year. All of the green plants you see are Foxglove in their first year of growth. These plants came from flowers that went to seed last summer. Next summer these will be awesome flowers that will start the process all over again. I promise to post pictures of these plants flowering next summer.


And that is why I think Foxglove are the perfect example of patience and persistence in your garden.

Ice Man Days

I was talking with a friend at lunch today and of course, the topic of this spring's cold weather came up. She is a gardener as well so we began to compare notes. I told her that I had peas, spinach, lettuce, beets, potatoes and Brussels sprouts in but they really weren't growing because of the cold weather. I then expected her to list off the same kind of items for her garden but her response surprised me. She said she didn't have anything planted. I thought, she must be really busy and just hasn't had time to get in the garden. No, that wasn't the situation at all. She told me that she never plants anything until after the Ice Man Days. I started laughing since I had never heard of this before. She went on to explain that it was an old story she had heard from several local vegetable farmers. The story goes that you never plant any seeds or seedlings, no matter how warm it gets in the spring, until a certain time in May has past.

When I sat back down at my desk after lunch I had to Google Ice Man Days in May. Sure enough there it was.

Saint Pancras, Saint Servatius and Saint Mamertus are called the Ice Saints. Their festival days are May 11th, 12th and 13th. People in Medieval Europe believed that there was always a cold snap of weather around these dates. In fact, students of Galileo diligently recorded weather from 1655 to 1670 and actually confirmed cold snaps during or around these dates. Farmers began to use the festival dates as their safe planting dates. As long as they planted their crops after the "Ice Man Days", they knew they would avoid damaging cold weather.

Hopefully we have passed our Ice Man Days this week. Happy planting.

Two pictures of my slow growing garden.

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