Lupines. I just had to add them to my garden.

I saw these gorgeous things at a local nursery on Saturday and had to buy them.. Not one of my usual stops so that might be why I have not seen them before. They had White Flower Farm labels as the grower.

It has been years since I had Lupines in my garden but I couldn't pass these up. They have such beautiful colors. I bought POPSICKLE RED but they had lots of colors and they all started with the word Popsickle.

The Description said these are dense and stocky with flowers tightly packed along thick upright stems. 13-16 inches tall. Flowers from June until mid July. Of course, they are starting to flower now.

You just had to see the colors, the colors were so vivid and striking. Guess you figgured out I really liked the striking colors LOL!!!!

I knew when I saw them I had just the perfect spot. I bought two and planted right away.

Then since Saturday I have been thinking and thinking about those lupines. Couldn't get them out of my mind. So I drove out to the nursery were I bought the lupines on Saturday and I bought EIGHT MORE lupines :-)). Eight more pots of lupines. I can't do anything halfway. I don't think I understand the concept of getting one of something, ha ha.

Here are the eight pots sitting all together on my driveway after I unloaded the car. I just think these things are so gorgous.

NICE! Love those! I would have bought that many too .... can't just have one or two lol
I don't have any lupines but have looked at adding them. I may just do it now. :D

Newyourkria, they are just lovely. Why don't you order some seeds and save the seeds of these lovelies too? I have about 3 flats of lupine ranging from dwarf to tall.
Russells are tall and an old variety, but they are beautiful. Then I found a Russell counterpart more modern: Band of Nobles. I have 2 blooming now from last year and 2 yet to bloom. I have never had them either, and I will never be without them again.
I noticed on Swallowtail seeds that you can get Russells in individual colors. I do have Blue Governor which is Russells, I believe. They are all so scrumptuous looking.

I actually intend to deadhead them as soon as they are done blooming so that they do not even think about making seeds. I read on the label that they might rebloom in the fall IF the bloom stalks are cut back.

I just ordered (on line) the GOVERNOR selection of Russels, which is a blue and white. I saw it and flipped, thought it was lovely. I have just the spot.

Now the thing that I think will be extra great is that the short new hybrids bloom about two weeks earlier than the Russels. So if you have both you can really extend your bloom time.

I have planted all these potted lupines and it REALLY turned out great !!!

Looking back towards my little pond area.

The way it looks in that newly created garden.

Wow! You actually have an instant garden! I thought I was undisciplined, but you are
worse than I am! I always apologize to people and explain that I spend NO money
on myself except for gardening. I don't really need to do that, do I? I have also met
the most delightful woman here who sells her flowers for $10 a bucket and leaves a can out for people to leave payment. She is crazier than I am about flowers and we get on the phone and just babble varieties.

I have this written down because I always forget:
Gallery Lupin 15-16"
Tutti Frutti 40"
Russell 30-36"
Llu 24"
Band of Nobles Probably the same as Russels

There is one variety that I have not listed that I know nothing about

Are these Lupines annuals, or perennials? I know nothing about them! They are stunning!

Perrenials. I just fell in love with them.

OK! gotta have some!

Actually, there are some annual lupins I believe. The blue bonnet of Texas is an annual lupin, I think. In fact Morella Cherry Lupin is a first year blooming perennial; and it is just beautiful!!

They are very easy from seed. All I do is soak them in hot water (changing the water
several times for 2 days_ it does say one but 2 does the trick.) Then they germinate very quickly. They grow big strong roots very quickly too. The second year they bloom. You could start right now and have dozens of these wonderful flowers next year. That's what I am doing right now. It's easy/peasy!

The ones they sell in the local nursery (and also on line at cariouis places) are perennial Lupines. I have the Popsickle Series and there is also the Gallery hybrids. Both are sold as perennial. Mind you these are new to me so only time will tell if they come up next year. However, I expect them to be perennial as the tag said.

NYrita, Those lupines are all so beautiful! And, you make me laugh with your plant spending sprees. It's hard not to get carried away. So many beautiful plants, so little money (in my case anyway).

I wanted to show you my lupines that were grown from seed by the winter sowing method in Feb of 2009. They are now blooming, and I just love them. I've read that lupines are short-lived perennials, so I plan to winter sow some lupines every year so that I'll always have some.



This message was edited May 17, 2010 6:28 PM

I also posted these pictures on the perennial discussion group, so please bear with me if you've already seen these pictures :)

another

And this one is "gallery pink"

The pictures are marvelous. I don't visit the perennials forum , don't know why. But I like this forum. As far as buying plants, I am hopeless. I just love my garden so try to make it my version of perfect.

I just love your pictures. You did a great job starting those plants yourself.

Sorry to butt in, I couldn't find the thread.

I called Bluestone, and they said that they "thought " the sale started this coming weekend. Check for yourself if you need to. This is the ONLINE sale.


www.bluestoneperennials.com or 1-800-852-5243

There is some sort of sale at Bluestone because I just ordered at half off today.

I ordered Woodfield hybrid Lupines at Bluestone. I haven't seen them anywhere else. Placing them was a challenge as they are somewhat tall. But I thought about it overnight and went out to the spot I had in mind today and realized that yes, it would work.

The clincher was that the plants were on sale at half off. So I ordered nine of them.

They are going in the wider bed in back of the garage. They will go in front of that very back row of serviceberry shrubs that are back there and in back of the two rows of daylilies. So they will be inbetween. It will actually look very, very good.

You know I have these lupine cazies really bad. And I know that this will not be the end of it.

Sounds really great, Rita! I've always bee happy with my Bluestone orders. And I love their sales.

This is my third order from Bluestone this spring. The first two were sedums. The plants are so small but I couldn't find those sedums anywhere else. These lupines either. The sedums are happily settled in and growing so I hope the lupines will do well also.

Gloriag..how do you gather seeds from lupines? Or are they called lupins? I keep looking at other people's and wanting to try to grow them. Maybe I'll go to a quality nursery and see if I can buy the starter plants. PGT(Pam)..yours are beauties. Guess those will go on my WS list. what varieties did you WS? I made myself a promise that I'd only WS what I really wanted to add to my flowerbeds next spring and I'd set myself a quota ahead of time. May have to set some priorities come January. Somebody told me where she buys Promix locally so that is definately on my list. I hated MG but cost may dictate I learn to love MG somehow. We'll see what next year brings.

Betty,I too want to grow Lupines,I need to try harder at starting from seed..I was lazy didnt soak the seed or nic it,well none came up !!!! Maybe we can get some encouragement from someone here.

If they didn't come up because they weren't scarified (or otherwise had dormancy broken), they should still be down there. I wouldn't be surprised if they appear next year, after a natural winter cycle.

Maybe some things are best purchased as starter plants. Tam, you will get them to grow somethow. You should see my liatris you sent me! May have to move them to garage flowerbed in the late Fall or early spring so others can see them. Ever tried to grow California poppies?

huggergirl, It takes two days of constantly changing the water so that
it remains as hot as possible. I use a shop light in the laundry to germinate them. It is not hard, but do not skip that essential step!
I had literally dozens of several types ready to be planted out. However the
slugs got to most of them first. I still have a packet of Russell seeds which I will start soaking tonight.

Well,ok now...Iam hoping that those seeds I planted might sprout next yr. and if I ws any next winter I will soak them and if those plans fail ,I will buy one in a pot !!!!! sounds like a plan to me!!!!

Betty ,Ive got the big orange ones ,started from seed.Id love some red poppies.I might have to try to grow some.Iam so glad your liatris did well ,I should have told you it was a real mature clump and that they would get 3ft tall..Glad you like them..

Some companies sell Lupine seeds pre treated. In other words they are already scarified for you. Might be worth looking for. Also I've had good luck just soaking them overnight without scarifying and then planting the seeds. I used very warm tap water.

Wanted to add that I may of added a little hydrogen peroxide into the water. Just a half a cap full into the small dish of water is what I usually use.

Poppies? I have tried for years and years. I have two healthy seedlings
from hundred of seeds this year. Most of them were no-shows.

But I can really grow lupins. My method is to put them in a styrafoam cup and soak them in really hot water for two full days. I change the water several times each day to keep the water hot/warm when I remember it. For that reason I keep then in the kitchen were I will see them.

The Russells were in the cup two days; I have about 25 germinated by the second day. I am thinking about putting some already germinated ones in the ground to see if they really need to be babied along from this point. I can spare the couple needed for the test.

I have never failed with Lupin when I discovered the 2 day hot water soak (use a little peroxide if it makes you feel better.) The same goes
for delphinium seeds. I read and read on the sites until one woman said, "I just pop them in the freezer over night; it works every time."
She is right. I had a huge crop of seedlings this year. These are two
very simple practices. If you don't believe me, try just a few this
way first,

By the way on my last seeding of them I bought both the delphs and the lupin seeds for less than a $1 each from Crossman's, which is over a hundred years of Co. in Buffalo, NY. What can you lose?

This message was edited Jul 1, 2010 12:24 AM

Hello Everyone !! Seen the thread on Lupines and just wanted to chime in... Love Love them !!! I have grown them for 8 years now. They are still my favorite in the garden. Mine have all finished blooming and I have many many seeds, and pretty sure mine are all Russell mix. If anyone is interested in trading some seeds let me know.

Paula

Hi Paula- Many lupine lovers here :-))

Mine are doing well that I planted this spring. This in sprite of the baking hot weather we had been having this spring.

Here is a picture of that lupine garden area taken today. The lupines are just green leaves now and the daylilies have taken the spotlight.

Hello! May I share my experience here with you? I started some lupines from seed this winter on my back porch. (Not the standard W/S'ing method...LOL!) I originally put them in the peat pots and they started to get mold on them. Now these are the peat pots that expand and they have the plastic cover on them. So, when I saw the mold I thought it would be best to remove them and just put them in regular cell packs and get them out as soon as they germinated. They did not all germinate at once so I had to check them daily. Later in the spring, when they began to grow I had them on the balcony and I bumped them and they all fell over...YIKES! After being ever so careful to transplant the tender seedlings...so I did what I could to save them. Out of about 2 dozen, I think there were 12 or so that recovered all my bumbling. They are now planted out in my new "Cottage Garden" bed. Some were Russells and the others were Tuttii Fruitti mix. They are still quite small, so I have not yet taken their pictures, but when they grow up, I will do so. If you think that they cannot be transplanted or that you need to put them in peat pots, well don't worry. Just be very careful and be sure to transplant them when they are small into larger pots. I expect great things from them next spring....

Unfortunatly I had poor sucess with the Lupines in this garden overwintering. Most simply died out. But we had such a heat spell last summer that I am trying again and hoping for sucess.

So since only afew of those Lupines in the Lupine garden came back this spring (and they are small plants no were near as big as they were last year when planted) yesterday I went out to the nursery were I bought the Lupines last year and bought 10 new ones. I just planted them right now. No pictures yet because they still have to be mulched which I am not going to do today. It's going to rain and I have other garden chores to do today before I finish up.
But in spite of my lack of success first thing this spring the Lupine garden is back.

I was early going to buy them as there are no flower stalks yet and last year the flowers showed color when I bought them. So I had to go by the color named on the tag. But even within the colors there is a variation so if you can see the blooms you can pick out the shades you like the best. But I was so worried that they would sell out (they did quickly last year) that I wanted them now so that I would have my Lupine Garden back. My nightmare was that I would go to find the plants all sold so early is better LOL!

I picked 4 of the blue, 4 of the red and two pink. I didn't have pink last year.

I bought 3 or 4 at the nursery; I only know they are Russel.
But I WS and got some babies, and I tried an experiment. When the
lupins were up, I thought pregerminated seed might work. So I soaked
some Tutti Fruitti in hot water for one or two days, I did some Russels
too. Then I made a little trench in one of my beds....nothing for the
longest time. Then they popped up and many have their first leaves.
I have about ten like that already. I have to transplant them early because they don't like it. I did the same thing with delphinium seeds;
so far nothing has popped up.

Also, I have been taking cuttings from chrysanthemum and phlox.
I have about 30 phlox cuttings (you are supposed to pinch both to
make them bushier.) I also did the same thing with a lovely white
quill about 18" tall. I bought them from Bluestone., Now I have
about 15-17 of those rooting too. Earlier, I separated a couple of
campanulas Telham Beauty and they all took too. If you have an
established garden, seeds are good, but lots of cuttings and
divisions are wonderful!

gloriag How long did it take to root phlox from cuttings? Am thinking about doing several plants this year. Also was before or after bloom? And if before bloom, does that make blooms for current year shorter? Good Luck, Kathy