Native Lupine

I am fortunate enough to have this wild plant come up in my yard. This is foothill lupine or Lupinus succulentus.

That's a beauty, Kelli! We've got lovely native lupine here, as well. Lupine don't take well to transplanting, due to their long tap root, so it's really nice to have them pop up on their own. Have you added it to the PF?

Yes, it's in the PF, not this particular picture, but other I took another year.

Oh, good! I just love lupine. Our Nootkas bloom on the mountain sides and the young plants are fuzzy little fellows. Once they start bloom, they look very similar to this one.

Love it, Kelli. How fortunate you are... : )

How's the wildflower bloom outside the desert areas. I know they had a great year there.

Carrizo Plain is good. http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/494427/ Some people might consider that desert, but I call it semiarid grassland.

Thanks Kelli. I will check those out. Interesting place. Used go through the Carrizo Plains once in awhile when I was going to Cal Poly, SLO. One of my best friends mapped the soils there.

John

Interesting. SLO just might be my favorite county in CA.

Yep, Los Osos , Pismo Beach and Morro Bay. There are a few stands of the original native California perrennial grasses there, too.

Kelli, in your beautiful photo of the Carrizo Plain you linked, are those blue flowers Lupinus succulentus, as well? I recognize the California poppies, but the yellow flowers in the background are hard to distinguish. It's really beautiful.

The yellow flowers are goldfields. I can't figure out exactly what the lupines are, but they are not Lupinus succulentus.

W2D, what did you study at Cal Poly? - besides the girls ;-)

Soil science and range management.

My husband's brother and wife visited recently from Lancashire, England. The lupines were just starting to come up and I was so happy. S-I-L told me they were considered weeds in England and they got rid of them! Wonder if this was just her opinion or if that's the general thinking there? Oh, well, one person's weed... :-)

I need a 'stamp' I can apply to messages that says "Great photo, Kelli!"

The woman who lives next door to us says she also has the lupines come up in her yard. She said that other people ask her why she doesn't pull out those "weeds", but she likes them and leaves them. I don't know why people would consider them weeds. I don't think they are "weedy" in appearance and they aren't invasive. I will reluctantly pull one out that has come up in a bad spot like in a gap in the sidewalk, but otherwise, I let them go wherever they are.

I don't know if it is co-incidence or not, but ourselves and the woman next door are the only people on our stretch of the street who don't have "gardeners" come once a week to cut the grass and run the leafblower. I doubt that they pull weeds, unless there is some noisy gas-powered machine that does it, but people who have "gardeners" usually have neat but rather bland yards.

;-)

Messy, ungardenered front side yard...

Neat, gardenered house across the street... (You are allowed to like this one better if you want.)

Its ok but, I like the color in the "messy" one much better

I go with messy.

Your garden is wonderful, Kelli. It is alive with color and texture, and it looks like a fortunate accident rather than an experiment in flora discipline. I believe that the appearance of fortunate accident rather than great effort, even when it is required, is what makes one a 'pro'. ... case in point, Eric Clapton playing a ballad.

Hey, I like that Weez!