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In praise of Lupins

TheGreenManTheGreenMan Tyne & Wear Green Belt Posts: 1,613
in Plants
My sister gave me a few lupins last year in a pot to start planting in my back garden. 

I didn’t have anywhere to put them so two went in the front and I plonked one out the back (no beds in the back garden, just gravel) just to see what would happen to it. 

I just moved a bit of gravel, punched a hole in the membrane and chucked it in (compacted clay soil). 

It didn’t do much last summer and then slowly died down during winter. 

I created my first bed a couple of months ago and completely forgot it was there. The new bed finished just before where the poor, neglected and forgotten lupin lay dormant. 

Two months on from the bed being created and it’s back. 

It looks a bit odd sticking out of the huge bed of gravel next to my lovely new, conditioned perennial bed but I respect it too much to move it. 

The two that I put in the nicer soil in the front garden are probably an eighth of the size of this one. 

So impressed am I with it that I’ve been out and bought six lupins and planted them in the new bed. 

If I’d planted it with care and looked after it I doubt it would’ve come back so triumphantly! 

The little plant that could! 


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  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze I garden in South Notts on an improved clay soil Posts: 3,106
    @TheGreenMan Isn't nature a wonderful thing.
    The most serious gardening I do would seem very strange to an onlooker,for it involves hours of walking round in circles,apparently doing nothing. Helen Dillon.
  • TheGreenManTheGreenMan Tyne & Wear Green Belt Posts: 1,613
    It really is.  I often wonder if we interfere with perennials too much.
  • CrazybeeladyCrazybeelady WarwickshirePosts: 615
    I grew a few from seed two years ago but the aphids just ravage them so much I ended up pulling them out. But i have noticed a little seedling in my garden at the minute, growing where i didn't even plant the lupins! It's obviously a tough cookie so I'll let it grow, maybe it will fight off the aphids!
  • TheGreenManTheGreenMan Tyne & Wear Green Belt Posts: 1,613
    My aphid population seems to be confined to my scabious. 
  • Winchester_flareWinchester_flare Posts: 30
    I'm the same, the more I seem to try to care for a plant and put it in the optimal location the more likely it seems to die
  • Winchester_flareWinchester_flare Posts: 30
    Being on it's own presumably means less likely to suffer from slugs and aphids?
  • TheGreenManTheGreenMan Tyne & Wear Green Belt Posts: 1,613
    Winchester_flare said:
    Being on it's own presumably means less likely to suffer from slugs and aphids?

    There's been nothing but gravel there for the last 10+ years (looking at the estate agent pics from the previous previous owners) so I'm guessing slugs aren't really in that part of the garden yet......
  • TheGreenManTheGreenMan Tyne & Wear Green Belt Posts: 1,613
    It’s turning into a monster 


  • JennyJJennyJ DoncasterPosts: 7,701
    That's going to look fabulous in a week or so when the rest of the flowers open :) .
  • IlikeplantsIlikeplants W Mids Posts: 894
    Crazybeelady said:
    I grew a few from seed two years ago but the aphids just ravage them so much I ended up pulling them out. But i have noticed a little seedling in my garden at the minute, growing where i didn't even plant the lupins! It's obviously a tough cookie so I'll let it grow, maybe it will fight off the aphids!
    Aphids galore on the lupins I tried to grow some years ago too - black aphids, even worse. It put me off them but they do look lovely if this and slugs weren’t an issue..

    Love seeing how big plants can grow so suddenly 
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