Hi Dafy,

IÂd leave them on the plant until the little pods are clearly turning brown. Then you can be sure theyÂre fully developed and should be viable. When they start to dry, watch them pretty closely or they may drop the seeds before you can get them. IÂve not harvested lupine seed before, but my guess is that theyÂll ripen pretty quickly once they start.

Have fun,
Skybird

Thanks Skybird

I cut one off just to see what the seeds look like, about 4 tiny seeds and really cute (jchaber would love these). After the pods dry out should I leave them in the pods until I'm ready to plant them or should I go ahead and get the seeds out and store them separately. My roommate's mother (who's 84) saves castor beans in the pods until she plants them the following spring so I think that's the way to go, but I'm not sure since those are beans and not flowers. I've never thought about saving seeds until I joined GW.

Thanks again,
Dafy

Pick the pods, remove the seeds and store separately. The seeds should be hard when you pick them, not soft and unripe. Watch carefully, because the drying brown pods have a tendency to pop open and drop the seeds. Not that that is too bad a situation, because lupines reseed easily. Too easily - I deadhead mine because I don't want lupines all over the place.
I suppose I could save the seeds and give them to people, if anyone wants them.

If you are going to the swap in the Fall, I'd love some lupine seeds.

Cyndi

They are beautiful. Purple is fine with me!

Bloomingamaryllis - I'm not sure whether I'll be able to go to the fall swap or not, maybe I can mail the seeds to Skybird when it gets closer.

Thanks Cnetter - you are awesome.

Here's a pic of the lighter colored lupines
It's called Gallery Red, but I'll try to keep the seeds from the two colors separated

Any and all donations for the Fall Swap will be gladly accepted, Dafy, but I hope you're able to bring them in person!

You can keep the seeds for different colors separate, but I'm pretty sure lupines cross pollinate, so if you have more than one color in your yard, the color may not come true from the seed you save anyway. Like that means they're not gonna be pretty! :-)

Skybird

The darker color was definitely a red like it said on the tag. All I can think is when they were sown another color of lupine made it in with the red lupine. I think we got them at Nick's. Is it usual for them not to flower the first year?

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1206421}}

It's been a long time since I purchased a lupine, but my seedlings don't flower the first year, so it probably depends on how mature your plant was.
FWIW, none of my current lupines are the original plants, but are all seedlings of seedlings...quite a few generations,
and all are now purple.

Cnetter, what exposure do you have your lupine in? I absolutely love the flowers and tried growing them before and failed miserably. Any other tricks to get your results? I, too, would love to have seed.

Connie

I found small plants at a nursery and they quickly turned into 3 1/2 to 4 foot beauties. I read somewhere if you dead head that they will re-bloom. Mine are at the seed pod stage (a few) the pods are so heavey they are bending and snapping off. I have fresh stems full of poda and I'm not sure what to do with them or the ones coming up to seed. Help.

Do you have to wait for the pods to turn brown on the plant before harvesting from the plant, or can you clip the stem with the pods on it and let them dry out.

I think it is best to allow the stems to reach some level of maturity, Deena. That is the way with most "seed" operations. In my farming experience, it was only bluegrass that was swathed first and allowed to dry before seed harvest. This varies with climate however and in coastal areas, even barley may be cut and dried before threshing out the seed. Just watch the plant to be sure that you harvest the seed before the pods shatter.

It was nice seeing this thread come up again. Usually, I'm fairly frustrated with lupines by late June. The aphids love them soooo much. Then I spray and the blossoms burn.

I've sprayed this year also but didn't feel the need to "drown" the plants. First time I can remember that the aphids weren't "sucking the life" out the lupins in a major way.

I sometimes leave a stem or 2 and the plant reseeds naturally. They seem quite competent at doing this.

digitS'

I agree about the aphids-- I have to cut the bloom stalks off before the aphids go wild. This year I didn't have the same problems as last year. Too dry? All of my perennials are doing poorly compared to other years. Even the "drought" years were better. I think this is the driest I've seen in 10 years. I think I have gotten about 1/2" rain this whole summer--if that. It's taking its toll on my "garden" (not much of one this year) and on me!

Well, I don't have any harvesting tips, but I went on a hike at Mount Sopris this weekend, with my sister who was visiting from out of state, and we saw tons of Lupines. They looked especially pretty up against the Indian Paintbrush.

{{gwi:416807}}

Bonnie

hi if someone would send me some seeds i would love them .... i really think this is a very nice flower ... i would enjoy any colors thank you so much... harley

My Lupines bloomed this year, juat planted last year and no blossoms that first year. Loads of flowers this year. Now I have hundreds of pods which obviously will bear lots of seeds. Can I cut off the pods/stems now and wait for seeds to dry? How to keep them over the winter, or can I sow them now. How much prep for planting these seeds?

Leave the pods on the plant till they're brown and starting to dry. Don't wait too long, though, or the seeds will drop naturally! When they're brown, snip them off and put them in a PAPER bag to dry the rest of the way, and manually open any pods that don't open on their own. Separate the seeds from the pods and keep them in paper till they are COMPLETELY dry, then you can store them in either a plastic baggie or a paper bag or envelope. Store them in a cool, dark place over winter, and to start them you could either winter sow them (see the winter sowing forum), or you could start them in SMALL pots inside in early spring. If starting inside, soaking Lupine seeds in water for 24 hours before sowing them is a good idea. If winter sowing, just put them in the soil and let them do their thing as it starts to warm up in spring!

Depending on where you live, if they're already ripe, you could start them now and get them into the ground outside before winter!

Skybird

I've tried to collect seeds from wild lupines and cannot figure out what the seeds should look like. Did a web search and they're supposed to be about 1/4 inch and apparently are light brown to black.

Our lupines have some black "seeds" about the size of basil seeds or smaller. The pods are brown and many already opened, but all we find in the closed pods are very small black seeds, if that's what they are.

Thanks for any pointers!

It sounds like most everybody has good luck with lupines but me. They do great the first year, then either don't come up at all the next or are pathetic. Too much/little sun, much/little water, soil too sandy...?

I just put another three (Gallery Whites) in this weekend. Try, try again. They don't bloom long, but are so pretty when they do. I agree about the aphids though. :(

The ones I really love are the Gallery Reds.

I have a question on storage of seeds. We live on an island in NW Ontario during the summer. I have planted some of my lupine seeds and they are starting to grow and will probably do fine next spring. I have many more seeds and would like to share them next spring with our neighbors on the next island. Our cabin is not heated and the temperature will probably get to 40 below for an extended time. Will the seeds be ok just in a bag in the cabin or should I take them home with me until next spring? Thanks for your help on this.

I have lots of lupine seeds I want to share with my neighbors. My problem is we live on an island in NW Ontario and the cabin is not heated in the winter. Will the seeds be ok if they freeze?

I have had great success with fighting aphids on my lupine & climbing honeysuckle by using ant killer. Look up the symbiotic relationship between the two (sick)! I also spray with water (hard) which knocks off aphids & prevents those sprayed from climbing back. I wanted to post a pic of my beautiful blooms but have not figured out how :( I save my seed pods in paper bags marked with color, but know they may be crossed. I let alot seed on their own. I am in SW Montana & they love it here.

If anyone wants lupine seeds that I harvested please let me know I can mail them to u. my parents have a whole hill side loaded with pink and purple lupines. you can't kill the things and they spread like wildfire. I have a sandwich Baggie half full of seeds.

I store mine in a sealed Baggie or Tupperware dish live in NH and have great luck growing lupines. actually I deadhead after stalks dry but before they split open cause they will literally take over your entire garden and choke out other perennials.

Jenny Churchill, I'd love some if any are still available. I started some from seed last year and only got one plant out of it. It's nearing the end of winter now and I don't know if it survived or not. It had some leaves and now they're gone hopefully it'll pop up in the spring.

wow..... Lupines are beautiful ....

We bought some PEI lupine seeds after our visit there...they are everywhere and gorgeous! We were successful with the seeds but turns out all the flowers are purple. I'm excited to harvest the seeds from the pods soon for planting on our backyard hill (that grows totally wild each year!) If anyone has any seeds from plants that are not purple that they'd be willing to share, I'd be ever so grateful. I can send you some purple in return! How fun this could be! Thanks all for your comments on this thread..so helpful.

Hi Francis,

Can't respond to my post from last year or to your's but heck yeah I got lupines right now and in about a month will have more seed pods than I can ever plant seeds from. If u want I can put in a ziplock baggie and mail to you. Let me give u my work email you can email me there with ur address if you'd like. Jchurchill@bondoptics.com, or I am also on facebook and twitter, Jenny Churchill, that's my name and I live in NH. Twitter handle is @NHJMC .

Hi all, can't respond to individual messages. Huh. If anyone wants lupine seeds email me at Jchurchill@bondoptics.com with ur mailing address. In about a month or less I will have 50-100 seed pods. Yeah my parents have literally a whole small hillside of lupines and they are in bloom now so I'd say takes about a month or so to go totally by and pods to dry out. Oh yeah last year I filled up a half of sandwich baggie of lupine seeds. VERY easy to grow. In my state the state plants them everywhere cause they're so easy to grow and spread like crazy :) careful where you plant though cause they will take over your whole garden in a few years time at least did for me and my parents I had to dig up and toss some last year :( just I have other flowers and those things where choking out a lot of my plants.

I have grown them for years, I wait for the pods to turn dark grey and collect them in a big wash bin, then over the winter I take the seeds I get out of pod and freeze them in March I get them out and scatter them out in the garden. They are very hard seed and don't mind the cold or snow, infact I get more plants if I scatter in March instead of April or May. I do scatter some then also. If in a hurry to Germinate because you are late scattering, soak the seed in warm water for a couple of days They will swell up and they will germinate quickly, Do not do this if you scatter in March let them do their own thing. Last year I ripped out all the plant after they had gone to seed and planted Zinnas, I had a second beautiful garden late Aug/Sept. My question do Lupine plants in N.Y. come back the next year? I don't think so. They seem to just die off. Let me know if you know Thanks

Hi Cindy, I live in NH and yes they will come back every year and spread too.

All I do is let the plant flower then go by 2-3 weeks later the pods like you said turn like fuzzy and grey and will split open to drop many seeds I pluck them off, collect seeds, put in baggie then in Tupperware with lid I plant in fall so they can start to grow that spring -tends to take a year or two to take and actually flower at least in my area. Dang I wish I knew so many people wanted cause my parents had a bunch of their property dug up and had to move/ get rid of a pretty good size hillside full of lupines. Also if anyone looking for low maintenance flowers that spread...day lilies, my gosh those things are like weeds around here I rip tubers and huck over bank!

These are the loop in pods that my aunt saved for me from her farm here in Maine. My question is do I take the seeds out of the pod and store them over the winter or do I take the seeds out of the pod and try to plant them now in the fall here in northern Maine? I understand they take two years to actually flower and I would like to have a whole field of them eventually on our property that used to be potato field where we just built our home. I have read on this thread to throw them out in March and let them do their thing. However in March we still have well below freezing weather and several feet of snow on the ground. What it be best if I plant them now soaking them for 24 hours and then scattering them out to the field. Or soak them for 24 hours throw them out into the snow in March and let nature take it's course. Or soak them for 24 hours when temperatures are warmer in May June-ish and scatter them in the field? Any help will be greatly greatly greatly appreciated as I would love to look out my window and see acres of this beautiful Plant

As time goes by and I understand the whole cycle of the lupine I would be happy to provide anyone with seeds if our seeds take off and are 33 acres become a lupine Haven

I want to come see your field when it’s ready!! Haha. Post pics! And good luck! I know nothing about lupine so I can’t offer advice but they’re gorgeous plants and I love them! I’ll take seeds when they come!