Pink Panther Foxglove • How to Care for This Beautiful Blooming Plant

How to Care for Foxglove

Foxglove is a fabulous perennial with an incredibly long bloom time—from spring until fall—and the new Pink Panther variety is a particular favorite! Bubblegum pink, tubular flowers with adorable speckled centers grow up along tall, upright stems, attracting hummingbirds who sip from their flowers like champagne flutes full of sweet nectar. Want to learn how to care for Pink Panther Foxglove in your garden? It’s easier than you might think!

How to Care for a Foxglove Plant

Foxglove can be grown from seed, but if you grow them from seed you aren’t likely to see any blooms until its second year; don’t be let down if you only get a bit of greenery in that first year. Pick a spot with full-to-partial sunlight—the Pink Panther variety of Foxglove can handle a wide range of growing environments, provided the soil is well-draining and rich in nutrients. Most Foxgloves prefer partial sunlight over full, direct sun, but Pink Panther is surprisingly resilient!

The key to encouraging repeat blooming in your Foxgloves is by keeping the soil consistently moist. The soil needs to be well-draining—if it’s compacted, the moisture will remain stagnant and contribute to root rot. Avoid letting the soil dry out entirely, and water your Foxgloves early in the morning before the soil is hot from the sun.

Foxgloves make lovely cut flowers for bouquets so that you can make some really pretty arrangements with all your cuttings! If you allow your Foxgloves to seed, thin the seedlings, so they’re 18” apart. If they’re too close together, they won’t grow properly and will have crowded roots.

Keep in mind that Foxgloves are toxic when consumed, so pay close attention when dogs or children play in the yard, although it is unlikely that pets or children will eat them due to their very foul and bitter taste. Surrounding your Foxgloves with shorter plants will make them harder for animals to access.

Using Foxglove in Your Garden Design

Foxgloves’ tall, upright nature makes them ideal for border planting, but the Pink Panther variety is a bit shorter than other varieties, at about two to two and a half feet tall. Line them up along the fence or in the back of your garden to create a pretty pink backdrop for your other plants and flowers.

Pink Panther Foxglove is also great for container designs—they act as the “Thriller” in your standard “thriller-filler-spiller” design, adding height and showy color. Plant them in the center or the very back of your container, depending on your preference for sightlines.

Plants That Pair Well with Foxglove

Depending on the style of your garden and your preferred color palette, there are lots of different plants and flowers that look pretty with Pink Panther Foxgloves. You can pair them with shorter, mounded plants to show off their pretty pink blooms, or you can plant them with other tall flowers to create a beautiful prairie meadow garden. When choosing plants, make sure you choose those with similar sunlight preferences—if your Foxgloves are in a shadier spot, opt for flowers that prefer those environments.

• Heuchera (Coral Bells) are a gorgeous mounded foliage plant to pair with Foxgloves. There are so many brightly colored varieties—we especially love red, purple, or lime green Heucheras to complement the rosy blooms of Pink Panther.

• Snapdragons are another hummingbird magnet with brightly-colored blooms. The dwarf varieties often found in garden centers are great for pairing with shorter Foxgloves like Pink Panther because they won’t block sightlines. They also make excellent cut flowers.

• Itoh Peonies have similar sunlight and moisture preferences to Foxgloves, and their mounded, shrubby shape brings a balance of shapes to the garden. Itoh Peony blooms are absolutely stunning and often used in mixed bouquets. Their flowers don’t last as long as Foxgloves in the garden, so if you pair them together, you’ll never be short on color.

• Irises are tall flowers that thrive in similar conditions to Foxgloves, and they are gorgeous in cut bouquets, so they make excellent neighbors in the garden!

Now that you know how to care for Foxgloves in California, let’s start planting! Early spring is the perfect time to get planting, so visit Roger’s Garden soon to gather all the plants and supplies you need to create your dream garden.