How to Grow Foxglove from Seed, the easy way!

For a stunning burst of cottage-style blooms, growing foxgloves is the way to go! It’s a favorite in many gardens because of its beauty and ease to grow from seed. Read on for instructions on how to grow your own!

Growing foxglove seeds is one of the easiest ways to get an abundance of these majestic cottage flowers in your garden.

The Foxglove is a perennial/biennial plant that produces bell-shaped flowers. Many new hybrids can flower in the first year.

If you want to grow the heirlooms, you can get them to bloom next season if you plant the seeds during the prior Summer and Fall.

So here is my trick. Many don’t plant their seeds until Spring but I plant mine as soon as they go to seed.

Sowing Foxglove seeds inside

Sow foxglove seed in cell packs or flats, press into soil, and do not cover. Light aids germination.

Kept at 65-75° F., germination is in 14-21 days. Transplant seedlings into the garden 18-24 in. apart.

You can direct sow foxglove seed into prepared seed beds after the danger of frost.

For more on starting seeds indoors see this…

Foxgloves in Spring

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Here is the Foxglove plant that the seeds will be collected from. This is in Spring while they are in full bloom.

Next to them is a beautiful white one. Thanks to the hummingbirds and bees, these have most likely cross-pollinated, there is no predicting what the foxglove seeds that germinate from these seeds will look like.

They can be either white, Fuschia pink color, or a variation of the two.

White and pink foxgloves growing at Flower Patch Farmhouse

When to collect Foxglove seeds

Here is the Foxglove plant stalk filled with seeds ready to be collected.

Pam at Flower Patch Farmhouse showing a foxglove ready to collect seeds from

The foxglove flowers have completed blooming and the lower seed pods are drying and splitting open.

The timing of the foxglove seed pods ripening depends upon your climate and when the plants bloomed for you.

Mine bloomed in late May / early June and the seeds were ripening in July.

Is Foxglove Poisonous?

Yes, the foxglove plant, leaves, and seeds can be poisonous if eaten. But also be aware that for some people just touching the plant can cause skin irritation.

So wear gloves while you do this and avoid brushing up against the foxglove leaves.

I have had no issues and don’t usually worry about it but I wanted to give you a fair warning.

How to collect Foxglove seeds

This is pretty simple and is how I save lots of different seeds.

Using a recycled plastic tub or another container, place it under the foxglove seed pod and clip it off with my hand pruners, letting it fall into the tub.

Also, you can use these cool snips, which are a bit less clumsy.

Go to another seed pod and do the same. When the seed pods are dry and splitting just barely bumping the stem will scatter seeds so be gentle and deliberate.

I get going hastily, as you will see in the video linked at the end of this post, as I don’t mind the seeds scattering a bit.