Is this a foxglove or nettle?

[mumarewenearlythereyet]

On the gravel next to my patio are loads of these little seedlings. Just two feet away is a big planter full of foxgloves. I was all excited thinking I have lot of foxglove babies but did a check in my plant identification app and it said .... purple dead nettle.

I've tried lots of different pictures and each time it says the same. I don't want to lovingly repot them and over winter them only to find out they were nettles!!

Any thoughts green fingered mumsnetters??

I thought lemon balm when I saw it. Grows like hek.

Both dead nettles and foxgloves are good for bumblebees, all three are good for a happy soul.

As for foxgloves being poisonous their Latin name is digitalis, a form of heart medication and the kind used to bump off people in Agatha Christie novels, along with cyanide and arsenic. There are many toxic garden plants but I assume none of you go round licking and nibbling on them. Common sense does need to be applied. Same as wash your hands before eating if you are gardening. However some plants do have highly irritating sap but you will soon know which have it 😉

Oh I thought it was hollyhock!

Neither foxglove nor nettle. Purple dead nettle is not a nettle, it’s Lamium purpureum, in a different family altogether (ie purple dead nettle is in the same family as mint, thyme, etc). It’s hard to tell at this stage, it could be Lamium purpureum, but I think it’s more likely to be Stachys sylvatica, hedge woundwort. Does it smell when you crush the leaves.

Because they’re beautiful? Like daffodils, which are also poisonous.

My child has grown up as have half my grandchildren and none of them ever licked any of the plants in the garden. Neither have the many dogs or cats.

Foxgloves don't jump out and attack you. They might cause a slight skin reaction while gardening, but so do many other plants. I've had them in my garden for more than 30 years. They are only toxic if you start munching away.

Because they are beautiful, they flower in dappled shade, bumble bees love them and they are native flowers.

Plus if you avoided everything that was poisonous, you'd never leave the house !

😂

I knew a school that wouldn't let the kids grow tomatoes because the leaves are not edible.

It does totally baffle me how freaked out people get with foxgloves. They have been part of cottage gardens for centuries. However it might explain why we now have a population explosion. Not enough people are dying from licking foxgloves 🤔

About 20 years ago an EU law came in that any toxic plant offered for sale must be labelled as such. It was quietly abandoned after a while because a huge number of ornamentals in our gardens are toxic to some degree. Just about all members of the ranunculaceae, for example. That includes buttercups, anemones, clematis, aquilegias, delphiniums and many more.You put your garden down to astroturf. I'll continue to have a beautiful garden full of flowers I love. I mean, why would anybody want to eat a foxglove?

We have hundreds in our woodland garden and both dc who spent enormous amounts of time outside have made it to their late teens without yet deciding to randomly eat any. I mean why would they? And surely you teach your children about poisonous plants as they grow up. My dc know they are poisonous. They also wouldn’t go eating the various mushrooms and toadstools we have or laburnum seeds, or deadly nightshade.

It looks like lemon balm. Shame, I love foxgloves too, we just planted a load last spring which will hopefully reseed!

Ridiculous!