hi misummer
strange...i have no prob. with lupine..in fact,i let a couple seeds fall in autumn and get more the following year..
do you buy older plants???they only live for 2-4 years..
i would suggest planting seeds...very easy to grow..
or in midsummer,stores often sell the small containers for 25 or 50 cents...good time to buy and don't let the look of them scare you...you plant them for the following year...
cheers and good luck..'
diggy

drainage?

Thanks for the information. I have tried growing them from seed, but they have never bloomed. I have bought bigger plants and gotten the same result (died the net year). I have lived in several different places with different soil and still have had problems, although I have to admit, where I live now, I have never had to amend the soil as much as I do now.

Thanks fot the advice!! Looking forward to Spring?!

My Lupin bed started four years ago with 20 plants in one gallon pots. Since then they have either come back or self seeded - in fact, they seed the best in my pea gravel patio and in wood-chip mulched areas so I suspect they like the quick drainage and not soggy aspect of that. Soil is very shaley with many pieces of limestone throughout so I suspect it's very alkaline.

Thanks for your information bogart. I really appreciate. I'll add it to my garden notes.

I have grown some dark blue wild lupine for some years now. I try to cut the seed pods off before they break open, so that I don't have a bumper crop. Mine seem to bloom each year.

Lupines need very good drainage. They do not like to be damp for long. I can have a stand of lupines that do well for several years and one long damp winter to spring will rot the roots and presto I am lupine-less again. Lupines are not fussy about soil condition. From what I have seen the more marginal the better. I put lupines in again, I really like the foliage and the flowers. Susz.

Thanks for all the info guys! Wish me luck this spring!
We just got a few inches of snow, so I think it'll be a while...