Young Growth Lupins Delphiniums

dannyjlowe

Hi all,

novice gardener here so appreciate any help. I planted a number of foxgloves, lupins and delphiniums last year and when tidying the beds over the weekend happily saw new growth on them all.

question is, do I need to do anything with them and do these look healthy? I seem to find no reference of what young growth should look like and how to care for it. It seems some of the lupin leaves are beginning to brown.

Also, we’re due a frost tonight - should I protect with fleece?

I also intend to take cuttings as they reached an impressive size last year. How big do side shoots need to be for this?

any advice on nurturing perennials in spring greatly appreciated 😊

pansyface

Everything looks fine.

Don’t worry about frost. Yes, they might get frosted but they’ll regrow easily enough. If you start to worry about frosts, you’ll end up with the whole garden covered in bubble wrap.

And then and wind will get up. Or it will rain. Or both. 😊

Cuttings are a bit hit and miss. I’d just buy more plants and save yourself the bother.

Crazybeelady

I've got quite a few Lupins and I wouldn't worry about the leaves going brown, or protecting them in any way.  I always seem to have some dead Lupin leaves on a plant, while other leaves are green.  They've had a few leaves on throughout the Winter, including during the snow.

PurpleRose

That looks fine. All through winter, I have had a few small leaves on the Lupin. When we had the snow a few weeks ago, they all shrivelled up and went brown. They were soon replaced by new green leaves which have grown pretty quickly.

pansyface

By the way, do you have shares in a slug pellet company?

There are enough in the photos to cover your whole garden. 😁

dannyjlowe

Thanks all, appreciate the advice 😊
@pansyface I was talking and sprinkling pellets at the same time - clearly I can’t multitask as half the pack seemed to go down!!

Dovefromabove

The problem is that slug pellets actually attract slugs!  I’d remove most of those. 😊 

shane.farrell

I put a small pile of sharp sand around the new growth of Delphiniums (and my Ligularia dentata) which so far keeps the slugs off. Improves drainage locally too!

didyw

My delphiniums are coming up quite nicely and I'm just leaving them to do their thing.  I was alarmed, however, by all the slug pellets you have there.  They are so awful for all wildlife please do remove them!  You can use gravel, broken eggshells, old coffee grounds, all sorts of things to deter slugs.  

BenCotto

I am not advocating the use of slug pellets but though you can use the things you list, @didyw, tests show they don’t actually work. 😒

dannyjlowe

I try to avoid slug pellets but had a real problem last year, tried coffee grounds, sand and went out hand picking them all up every night, only pellets worked in the end..