Visual harmony in the garden is as much about color as it is about form. Heres how to enrich your foxglove display:
Creating a lush, verdant backdrop for the stately foxglove, ferns bring a prehistoric elegance to the garden. Their feathery fronds offer a soft textural contrast that complements the foxgloves towering spikes.
What to Plant With Foxgloves Companions for a Stunning Garden Display
Foxgloves, with their tall spires of tubular flowers, are a quintessential cottage garden plant Their statuesque form and delicate blooms seem to conjure up images of English gardens in summertime. However, while foxgloves are beautiful on their own, pairing them with the right companion plants can take your garden to the next level The key is to choose plants that complement foxgloves’ growth habits and aesthetics. With some thoughtful plant pairings, you can create a stunning, cohesive display that showcases the beauty of foxgloves.
As a garden blogger and lifelong gardening enthusiast, I’m always on the lookout for winning plant combinations. Over the years, through trial and error, I’ve discovered some foolproof pairings that never fail to impress. If you want to design a show-stopping foxglove garden, here are some of my top companion plant picks:
Hostas Make Excellent Foxglove Companions
One of my favorite shade-loving companions for foxgloves are hostas. The broad, textured leaves of hostas provide an excellent contrast to the tall, slender growth habit of foxgloves, especially in shady areas. Hostas come in a range of leaf sizes and variegations, allowing you to choose a variety that complements your foxgloves. Miniature hostas like ‘Mouse Ears’ work well in front of taller foxglove varieties, while bolder hostas like ‘Sum and Substance’ pair better with larger foxglove species.
Combine Foxgloves with Vertical Perennials
To play up the verticality of foxgloves, combine them with other tall perennials like delphiniums, lupines, and hollyhocks. When planted together in a border or bed, these stately plants create a dramatic sense of movement and height. To extend the floral display, choose delphinium, lupine and hollyhock varieties that bloom in a similar color scheme as your foxgloves. Cool purple tones are a classic and elegant choice.
Herbs Offer Texture Contrast and Fragrance
Foxgloves pair beautifully with bushy, aromatic herbs like lavender, catmint, and sage. These plants offer silvery-grey foliage and textural contrast to complement the strong vertical lines of foxglove stems. Herbs also release fragrance when brushed against, adding sensory appeal. For best results, choose compact, shrubby herbs like catmint ‘Walker’s Low’ and lavender ‘Munstead’ that won’t block the view of the foxgloves.
Include Low-Growing Perennials in Front
To highlight the towering flower spikes of foxgloves, add low-growing perennials around their base. Some excellent choices include geraniums, creeping phlox, ajuga, and lady’s mantle. These plants will carpet the ground around the foxgloves without competing for visibility. Go for spreading perennials with charming foliage and modest blooms. The goal is for these plants to frame the foxgloves as the star attraction.
Annuals Add Pops of Color
No foxglove companion plant list would be complete without annuals, which allow you to refresh the color scheme each year. Some of my favorites include pansies, violas, and snapdragons. Their brightly colored, abundant blooms complement the softer color palette of most foxgloves. Use annuals to add splashes of contrasting hues around the garden. Go for vibrant oranges, reds or yellows to really make the foxgloves pop.
Ornamental Grasses Provide Movement
Don’t overlook ornamental grasses as companions for foxgloves. Grasses introduce movement and sound to the garden, contrasting beautifully with the statuesque form of foxgloves. For mid-height interest, try feather reed grass, purple moor grass or blue fescue. Plant en masse for textural impact. As the grasses sway in the breeze, they’ll showcase the elegant stillness of the foxgloves.
Hardscaping Highlights Key Plants
creative hardscaping features like trellises, obelisks and statues. Positioned next to mature foxglove specimens, hardscaping elements immediately draw the eye to the stars of the show. Try framing a standout foxglove with a rustic wooden trellis. Or place a concrete statue within a sweep of foxgloves to create a striking focal point. Hardscaping adds important structure and design.
Now that you’re armed with combinations that are sure to impress, it’s time to start planning your perfect foxglove garden. Use these companion plants as building blocks, keeping foxgloves as the central focus. With smart pairings and thoughtful design, you can create a cottage garden fit for a postcard! Let foxgloves steal the show against a backdrop of hand-picked plant partners.
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Ground Cover Allies
Ground cover plants can add a different texture to the soil and help keep it moist under the tall blooms of foxgloves.
- Alchemilla mollis, or Lady’s Mantle, has scalloped leaves and frothy chartreuse flowers that grow together to make a soft carpet that dewdrops stick to and shine on.
- The flat-topped flower clusters of yarrow (Achillea) spread out to offer a different shape and function. They keep pests away and add color to the ground.
When planning your garden, its crucial to know which plants could be detrimental to your Common Foxglove. Some plants can directly harm Foxgloves growth or become a magnet for pests that both plants share.
- Plants That Compete: Don’t plant species that need very different care or that might take resources away from Foxglove. For example, you shouldn’t put Foxglove with plants that like shade, like impatiens and coral bells, or plants that like dry conditions, like sedum.
- Disease Prone: Stay away from neighbors who are known to get sick easily; they can easily spread pathogens to your Foxgloves.
- Species That Have Invaded: Greeen Foxglove and hedge bindweed are two invasive plants that can take over your garden and kill your Foxgloves.
- Concerns about toxicity: Because Foxglove is poisonous, don’t plant it near plants that people eat or where kids and pets play.
Understanding which plants clash with Foxglove helps prevent garden feuds and ensures a harmonious and healthy garden environment.
Creating a flourishing garden with Common Foxglove means embracing the art of companion planting. It’s not just about how it looks; it’s also about creating relationships that are good for both your foxgloves and the plants that live with them. Heres a quick recap of the best partners for your foxgloves:
- Visual Enhancers: Lupines, Delphiniums, and Columbines not only make foxgloves look better, but they also need similar care and like to be in similar environments.
- Pollinator Attractors: Salvias, Bee Balm, and Foxglove Beardtongue aren’t just pretty flowers; they work hard to keep pests away and bring in good bugs.
- Textural Contrast Partners: Ferns and Hostas add a lot of different textures to your garden, making it feel better all around.
- Lady’s Mantle and Yarrow are great ground cover plants because they act like living mulch, keeping the soil moist and weeds away while adding their own special style.
When planning your garden, think diversity. A variety of plants not only looks stunning but also creates a more resilient ecosystem. Encourage pollinators, manage pests naturally, and enjoy the dynamic environment youve cultivated. Remember, in the garden, as in life, good companions make all the difference.
With Greg’s PlantVision, you can turn your garden into a symphony of color and life and make sure that your Foxgloves and their friends grow in peace and health.
My Experience with Foxglove! // Garden Answer
FAQ
What are the disadvantages of foxglove?
How to keep foxgloves blooming all summer?
Where should I plant foxgloves in my garden?
Does foxglove spread?
What is a common foxglove?
By the Middle Ages, the Common Foxglove was regarded as a panacea, a plant endowed with extensive heal-ing properties .
Is Foxglove a perennial?
Foxglove, Digitalis purpurea, is a herbaceous perennial or bienniel native to Europe, North Africa and Western Asia. It’s hardy and easily grown in our New England climate outdoors. It blooms for several weeks during the summer, although bloom-time can be prolonged by cutting off the spent flowers before seed is set.
Which foxgloves grow best?
The most popular plant grown in the garden is the common foxglove— Digitalis purpurea. Common foxglove has several popular cultivars: ‘Goldcrest’: Yellowy-peach flowers bloom amid lance-shaped dark green leaves. ‘Candy Mountain’: This foxglove boasts bright, rosy-pink flowers.