Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Like Foxgloves but not poisonous?

31 replies

BabaYagasLittleSister · 19/03/2024 09:31

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.

OP posts:
MereDintofPandiculation · 19/03/2024 15:28

JaninaDuszejko · 19/03/2024 14:40

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

OP Double check that. The lupins grown for edible seeds are not the ones usually grown in gardens. So the seeds of garden ones may be a problem

PuzzlingRecluse · 19/03/2024 15:32

Completely different style of flower but how about cosmos? Cut & come again, easy to grow from seed & beautifully flowery

brambleberries · 19/03/2024 18:06

Veronica Spicata.

TonTonMacoute · 19/03/2024 19:56

Verbascum, many sorts. Absolutely lovely.

BabaYagasLittleSister · 19/03/2024 20:00

I'm sure most kids would be fine with Foxgloves growing in the garden and would know or could be taught not to lick or eat them, but as I mentioned up thread I have an autistic 5 year old, who I don't trust to not lick, or stick his fingers in, or eat even. He has done lots of crazy things before, sometimes so quickly and without warning that I can't stop him. It's just not worth the risk for me, as much as I love them.

Thank you for all the other recommendations, I'm going to look into all of them. I have some cosmos seeds actually, because I have grown them before and loved all the flowers that seemed to bloom for ages. So I will definitely be growing them again. Forgot about lupins too, so I think I will do those too.

OP posts:
SarahAndQuack · 19/03/2024 21:00

I understand the caution around an autistic child - my DD has friends (twins) who will eat anything and aren't put off by bitter tastes (FWIW, Charlotte Moore, who has two now-adult children with autism and who wrote a lot about it, suggested that differences in the processing of tastes may be a feature of autism).

If it were me, I would just go for a fully edible garden - and then you won't worry. The blue spikes of chicory in flower are gorgeous and edible. Or you could go for alliums? There are loads of different flower types in colours from white to dark purple, and they're all totally edible, as well as decorative. Both peas and sweet peas are edible/harmless. If you wanted a spike of flowers in a pinky shade, I would go for something in the lamium family - dead nettles, that is - because although they are tiny and not at all so pretty, they'll definitely do no harm. Aramanthus, hyssop and mint would also produce spike of edible flowers; so would ordinary mallow (as @MereDintofPandiculation says). These would all give you a lovely cottage garden look.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread