How to Harvest Foxglove Seeds for Next Year's Garden

Do you love planting foxgloves in your flower garden every year? Learn how to collect foxglove seeds so you can plant more every year!

Foxgloves are a popular annual flower that can be found in home flower gardens and landscapes all summer long, and are common flowers to buy from local garden centers. They are perfect for filling a flower border around your home or to fill in the back of your flower garden. I love them because butterflies love them and are just beautiful in a mixed flower garden border.

They help bring in beneficial insects and pollinators and are great for bringing more butterflies and hummingbirds to your yard.

These beautiful flowers can get up to 3-4 feet tall- and look great in the back of your flower garden.

Though foxgloves are usually grown as biennial flower, they go to seed very readily. While you can allow the seeds to drop and see if new ones will sprout the following spring, you can also collect foxglove seeds to save and plant the following year.

Learning how to collect foxglove seeds will save you money- you’ll never have to buy flower seeds (or plants) again! And you’ll get to plant so many more in your flower garden.

Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) is a classic cottage garden flower that produces tall stalks of tubular flowers in shades of pink, purple, yellow and white. These biennial plants grow from seed one year, bloom the next, and then die after setting seed. Luckily, foxglove readily self-sows if the seed pods are left to ripen on the plants. You can also easily collect the seeds yourself for planting the following year.

When to Harvest Foxglove Seeds

Foxglove seeds start forming after the flowers finish blooming in midsummer, The seed pods develop at the base of faded blooms on the upper part of the flower stalks,

The pods mature from bottom to top, so check the lowest pods first Look for pods that are dry, brown, and starting to crack open Harvest seeds on a dry, sunny day when any morning dew has evaporated. Foxglove seeds are very tiny, almost like dust, so it’s best to collect them on a calm day to avoid losing any to wind gusts.

Some gardeners cover fading flower spikes with cheesecloth or breathable fabric bags secured with a twist tie or rubber band. This catches any seeds that spill out early while allowing the pods to continue ripening.

How to Collect Foxglove Seeds

The ideal time to harvest foxglove seeds is when the pods split open easily when touched or shaken. If the pods aren’t quite ready, you can pick them and allow them to dry fully indoors. Just place unripe pods in a single layer on paper plates or trays. Turn the pods occasionally and allow 1-2 weeks for full drying.

Once seed pods are fully dry and brittle, you have a couple options for removing the seeds:

Directly into envelopes or jars: Hold pods over an envelope, jar, or other container and crush or shake them to release the seeds. This works well for smaller harvests.
Onto paper plates Break open pods over a paper plate to catch all the tiny seeds Then pour the seeds into an envelope or jar This prevents any loss of seeds.
Over a sieve: Crush pods in your hands or with mortar and pestle over a fine mesh sieve. Gently bounce the sieve to filter out the debris, allowing only seeds to fall through into a bowl below.

No matter which harvest method you use, be sure to label the storage containers with the plant name and year collected. Store foxglove seeds in a cool, dry place until it’s time to plant them.

Growing Foxglove from Harvested Seeds

Foxglove seeds need exposure to cold, moist conditions for several weeks before they will germinate well. This cold stratification mimics winter conditions and helps break the seeds’ natural dormancy.

There are a couple ways to stratify seeds before planting:

Refrigerate seeds: Place seeds in a ziplock bag with a slightly damp paper towel. Leave in the refrigerator for 4-6 weeks before planting.
Outdoor winter sowing: Sow seeds in containers and leave them outdoors through winter. The cold temps and natural precipitation provide ideal stratification.

Foxglove seeds are very tiny so only lightly cover them when planting, about 1/8 inch deep. They need light to germinate. Whether planting indoors or out, keep the soil moist but not saturated for best results.

Germination usually occurs within 2-4 weeks after stratification when temperatures are 60-70°F. Transplant seedlings into the garden after hardening off, spacing 12-18 inches apart. Flowers will bloom the following year in early to mid summer.

Tips for Collecting Foxglove Seeds

Wear gloves when handling all parts of foxglove plants as the leaves and seeds contain toxic cardiac glycosides. Wash hands thoroughly after touching.
Check seed pods daily once they start to ripen. Seeds will spill out quickly once pods crack open.
Cut the entire flower stalk and hang upside down in a paper bag to catch any loose seeds if you won’t be able to check daily.
Rinse screens or sieves thoroughly after use to remove any residue that could contaminate future seed harvests.
Store seeds in paper envelopes or jars out of direct light. Add a silica gel pack to absorb any moisture and keep seeds viable longer.
Label everything with the plant name and year collected. Foxglove seeds can remain viable for 2-3 years when stored properly.
To increase germination rates, soak seeds in warm water for 12-24 hours before stratification.

Saving foxglove seeds from your own plants is easy and satisfies the urge to collect and propagate. With proper harvesting, cleaning, storage, and planting, you’ll have lovely Digitalis blooms gracing your garden for years to come.

how to harvest foxglove seeds

How to Collect Foxglove Seeds for Later

Collecting and saving foxglove seeds is very easy and in just a couple of minutes you can have tons of seeds. Which will turn in to tons of flowers you can plant next year for free!

Here’s how to do it:

With many of the flowers I grow, such as echinacea, cosmos, and zinnias, I pick the blossoms as they grow or deadhead them after the blooms have faded. I don’t always do this with foxglove s, but if you do, when you are ready to collect seeds you will need to leave the flowers alone and allow them to die back and allow the seed head to form.

The foxglove seed pods will form where the flower blossom was after the blossom has dropped.

After a few weeks you will see the seed pod swelling where the blossom used to be.

It’s not ready yet though!

This is the green seed pod. It is still immature and the seeds are still green inside.

You want to wait until the foxglove seed pod is completely brown and dry before collecting foxglove seeds.

It will look like this when the foxglove seeds are ready to be collected:

As you can see the pods are brown and dry and beginning to crack open.

You can even see some of the seeds inside the pod.

When the seeds are fully mature the pod will crack easily and allow the seeds to spill out.

You can collect seed heads by snipping them off the plant with scissors or simply pulling them off the plant with your fingers. You can also burst the pod directly into your hand or container.

Pull all of the seeds out and place them in a container.

Before storing it’s very important that the seeds are completely dry.

If you aren’t certain the seeds are 100% dry you can keep them in an open container or lay them on a tray covered with paper towels for a few days to allow them to dry before storing them.