For those who think there is no issue and no more education needs done I would disagree. I didn't know anything about the toxicity of foxgloves and my 7 year old son has got into wildflowers during the lockdowns. As children tend to do he was admiring the beauty of a foxglove in a forest this week and also as children are very prone to do he put his finger into one of the belllike - fingerlike flowers just for the fun of it. His finger got the pollen on him but as I had never heard of any danger with foxgloves (they are everywhere in ireland) i didn't think anything of it. I said he should wipe the pollen off on some grass but I didn't really think there would be any problem. About half an hour later he had a packet of raisins further into the forest. (We even used hand sanitiser first) A few hours later he started feeling very unwell and no appetite for any dinner and eventually threw up multiple times everywhere. Because of covid restrictions we haven't been going anywhere, and he has had no contact with people as school is out. So I know it wasn't a bug. I think it really would help parents to know about the dangers as think how easily a young child could do the same thing and enjoy putting their fingers into the flowers, without knowing the pollen is dangerous. We don't need ot be afraid of everything but when even the pollen is dangerous in foxgloves a little wider awareness would really help.

I'm in the NC piedmont area, aerbk. Usually I start looking at Annie's Annuals site in January or so, but it's too cold to ship then. They can have just what I want when it's too cold, and then can be sold out later. But usually there are a lot of tempting plants I want. I'd really like to see their nursery. It costs a lot to ship here but the plant prices are pretty good. Carol, it must be nice to have too rich soil. I remember in 1984 my family went on a camping trip from Houston to the Rocky Mtn Nat. park, on to Yellowstone, then up to Idaho and then to the Olympic Peninsula in WA. I remember in WA seeing wild focksgloves ( the eks key on my keyboard is not working) growing on the side of the road, and in people's gardens there were big oriental poppies. I think I remember delphiniums. I don't see wild focksgloves here. The PNW climate would probably suit me but wouldn't want TOO much rain. I am pretty happy with the NC climate but it is too hot for some things. I'm afraid I won't have fogloves net year because we probably just don't get enough consistent rain. Wouldn't I be seeing seedlings already? I cut back most of the focksgloves and most turned into black crispy stumps which I haven't dug up yet. But one or two plants still look pretty good and are trying to bloom some more...little bitty stalks compared to the earlier ones. Maybe they'll survive the winter.

I planted Excelsior Hybrids the year before last from seed, then put out the plants that fall, and they bloomed beautifully this spring. All but one of the plants declined after blooming and looked very bad and ratty so I got rid of them. ( after letting them go to seed). But I have one really nice, big foxgove clump left. The stalks died and looked ugly so I cut them off in early summer. But the leaves look quite healthy and if the plant was going to die I think it would have done so in the hot , dry summer and dry fall. I have hopes it'll bloom in spring. Some from spring: I think the surviving one is the white one on the right with about four or five stalks.

The foxgloves and roses are beautiful. To make it an even better cottage garden I would fill in all the bare space between them with billowing plants. At the moment they are a bit isolated imo.