BIENNIALS > FOXGLOVES > PRUNING

Foxgloves are incredibly easy and low-maintenance flowers to grow and, once established in a suitable location, they are plants that can largely be left to their own devices.

You are viewing: How To Cut Back Fox Gloves

Cutting back foxgloves is not really essential at all.

I often simply leave my foxgloves to their own devices as they self-seed and pop up each year in my forest garden.

However, I will sometimes give the plants a tidy-up in the early spring.

When it comes to cutting back foxgloves, whether or not you cut back at all and when you do so will depend upon your aims in the garden.

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You might deadhead or cut back foxgloves when flowers fade to prevent them from going to seed, or simply prune out dead or damaged material after the winter, in early spring.

Cutting Back To Remove Seeds

In order to understand the reasoning behind deadheading or cutting back when flowers fade, we need to understand the lifecycle of biennial plants.

Biennial foxgloves will typically establish themselves in their first year and then flower in their second.

After flowering, they will set seeds and then die.

Sometimes, biennial flowers that are not allowed to set seed because faded flowering stems are removed will flower again the following year.

However they will not always do so, so it is best to have backup plants in case they don’t.

Of course, you will only ever consider removing the faded flowering stalks once flowers are done if you don’t want to collect seeds or allow the plants to self-seed in your garden.

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In many cases, you will want your foxgloves to set seed so that you can enjoy more blooms in the following years.

I do not cut back flowering heads in my forest garden, as I want the plants to self-seed.

The dead flowering stalks over winter are also of benefit to winter wildlife and I often see ladybirds and other insects overwintering within them.

This is another reason why I don’t cut back these plants before the winter.

Pruning Dead Material In Spring

The second option is to let the plants continue their natural life cycles and tidy up the plants in the early spring.

Where necessary, in early spring, I remove any yellowing leaves on foxgloves, prune out any winter-damaged material and cut the old seed-head stems off at the base where these have persisted through the winter.

This ensures that new growth in spring on and around foxgloves can get the light and airflow they need and also keeps the garden looking good as we enter into the next growing season.

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Category: HOW