Is there any way to prevent the white foxglove plants from being pollinated by the other foxglove? Would planting a couple white foxglove in the back yard, with the pink foxglove in the front yard be enough distance to prevent cross-pollination?

Thanks,

Lois in PA

I don't think that putting one in the front and another in the backyard will prevent cross-pollination.

The best way to prevent it is to net the flower stalks before they bloom to stop the bees from getting in and out. :O)

With all that said I was doing some reading the other day and one site says that in order to eliminate crossing you can plant the plants 10 feet away. Though I have read other websites that say 50 feet away. Then also I have read where as long as it is heirloom nothing special has to be done.

Here is one of my favorite websites for seed saving it gives you tips on how to pollinate your own flowers and veggies. Maybe that is something you can do with your fox glove. Though I wouldn't use the same paint brush to do it. Enjoy and I hope that helps you some!!

After you save the white seed, you can mix colors to your hearts content. Or you could try covering one blooming stalk with the netting, as Tiffy suggested, and pollinate it by hand.

There is a lot of misleading information out there!!

Thanks!

First off I am an idiot!! LOL

Heirloom has nothing to do with crossing. It is in dependent on the genus, some will cross some will not. Anything that needs open pollination will cross. Now distance is still up in the air, I think I perturbed the person that answered the post so I didn't push that question.

With that said I think the hand pollination and bag trick would work great!!

Sorry I had to admit I gave misleading info and I do not want to add to the confusion that is already out there.

If you just bag your foxglove and you do not hand pollinate it you will not have seeds. If a plant needs to be open pollinated what that means is that in order for it to produce seeds it must have insects to pollinate it because the plant itself will not do it on its own. So you must hand pollinate it if you are going to keep the insects from doing it. Not all plants require this!! Most do though.

How do you know which do and which don't?? My answer Botanical, Botanical, Botanical, and a great search engine. There is quite a bit of misleading info out there yes but for the most part it is pretty helpful.

Here is something else you should consider. If I said to you I am planning on growing a blue lupine this year would that mean anything to you. Do you have a clue how many blue lupines are out there?? If a person can not get botanical names of their plants or if they do not know where they originated from to have a botanical name how do you know that seed will produce true plants?? The seeds that you have could be of a pink hybrid foxglove. You grow it it comes up close to pink, you pollinate the flowers save the seeds distribute the seeds to someone else under the impression they are pink and someone else gets white. That is how it works.

By the way the lupine is Lupinus Perennis or wild praire lupine, it is the only larvae food of the endangered karner butterfly. See now if I just said blue lupine how would you of known that the little plant would of been so useful. Also that lupine actually likes sun and dry conditions and it is a perennial compared to other lupines that like shade and bog like conditions. :) LOL, I found that out by someone else growing this variety, I went to do my searches and she was right on the money. Without the botanical name though neither of us would of known how to grow it properly.