Like Foxgloves but not poisonous?

[BabaYagasLittleSister]

I absolutely love Foxgloves, but don't dare grow them as I have young children and a dog. What is something similar I can plant for summer that won't be poisonous? I love English cottage style flowers.
I don't know much about gardening but really want some beautiful flowers this summer.

Delphiniums look quite similar to foxgloves

Are hollyhocks poisonous? I think they take 2 years from seed to flowering though.

I looked them up, it says they are poisonous. I don't know if they are less poisonous maybe, but I don't trust my autistic 5 year old!

And are just as poisonous. Also dark blue rather than purplish pink.

I will lookbinto hollyhocks. I do like them too.

Hollyhocks are mallow family which isn’t noted for poisons.

Penstemon have similar shaped flowers and bloom on and on all summer - they're also perennial which makes life easier!

Those are very pretty and I like that they will come back again and again.

I didn’t realise they were poisonous

I have pink delphiniums in my garden. As far as I know, they’re delphiniums? (Picture from last summer).

I grow Foxgloves around children I have never heard of any poisoning of children. It appears to be an urban myth that they present a real risk.

It’s not an urban myth. I’d imagine they might have to be ingested, but they are deadly dangerous

You could add Lupin, Laburnum etc, personally I think Rose of Sharon more a risk from the berries looking like blackcurrants. Of topic alcohol in the house causes many more incidents to children than any plant.

yes, they're delphiniums. But the default colour is blue. Those are lacking a pigment. You can get white ones too, I think. But if the OP looked for delphiniums, she'd get the blue ones.

They're in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. Always worth checking that family for poisons. it includes Wolfsbane

I don\t think she's disputing that it's poisonous, she's disputing whether it's likely in practice. So many of our plants are poisonous but there are very few poisonings, usually because the plant is unattractive to eat, or because the taste is unpleasant meaning too little is ingested to cause poisoning.

But everyone has to decide what level of risk they are comfortable with.

@MereDintofPandiculation “But everyone has to decide what level of risk they are comfortable with”

Yes, I’m wondering about my delphiniums now. I had no idea. I’ve been eagerly watching them poke through and now grow, the last few weeks. I have kids and a dog.

I've successfully brought up kids with foxgloves, cherry laurel, laburnum, honeysuckle, daffodils and who knows what else. The only medical problem we've had is DS is allergic to grass sap, so grass cuttings are a big problem for him.

It makes sense watching their environment when they're young, but as soon as they're moving to being old enough not to be within sight every moment, however safe your garden is, they need to be taught never to put anything in their mouth unless you say it's OK. You can make your garden safe, but you have no control over other people's gardens, public parks, school playing fields, etc.

Foxgloves are very poisonous. The leaves have a slightly furry texture that may appeal to children. I used to be fairly blasé about them before I read this. Esme’s Adventure with Foxgloves – outfoxgloved (wordpress.com)

snapdragon?

and teach children 'no picking no licking'

Harebells? Snapdragons? Acanthus? All have tall spikes of flowers. Harebells blue but others in lots of colours

Lupins?

Aquilegias and lupins are similar visually, and are also poisonous (not to same extent) but apparently they taste very bitter so tend to be spat out immediately. Not sure if you’d want to risk it though.

Aconitum is gorgeous, but deadly. Dozens of garden plants are very toxic, but no-one bat an eye-lid. Lilly of the vally, daffodils, and so so many more. I have all of them in my garden, had young children, cats, dogs, chicken. Never had a problem.

Lupins sound like your best bet, bitter tasting but the seeds are edible.

There’s plenty of dangerous plants that’ll make you really ill if you ingest them. I won’t grow lilles in the garden as I have cats, but nothing else really bothers me.