Loopy about lupins! These versatile favourites give a riot of colour all summer 

Loopy about lupins! These versatile favourites give a riot of colour all summer

  • Colour of lupins run from blue, pink, red and white through creams to yellow
  • Lupins are easy to grow from seed and much cheaper than buying plants
  • Gardening expert Nigel Colborn, says lupins prefer free-draining soils in sun

A few warm days and early perennials are bursting into bloom. Big poppies are the loudest and pinks the most fragrant. But the true aristocrats are lupins. On mature plants, their tall flower spikes cluster like miniature skyscrapers.

Flower colours run from pale to dark blue, pink to brick-red and from white through creams to yellow. Bi-coloured lupins can have contrasting colours or subtle, two-tone flowers.

Colour combinations include blue and white, pink or red with cream or crimson with yellow. Softer blends can be apricot with primrose, purple and mauve or two-toned blue.

Those are just the border varieties, developed mainly from the American Large Leaved Lupin, Lupinus polyphyllus, plus a few other species. From North America’s Pacific coast there are also tree lupins, Lupinus arboreus. Those are loose-limbed, short-lived shrubs with showy pale yellow flowers.

Dreaming spires: Colourful spikes of Lupinus polyphyllus reach for the skies

Annual lupins such as yellow, North African L. luteus are mostly grown as forage crops. Garden value is limited but they’re lovely in large, selfseeding drifts.

Lupins with the greatest value are highly developed perennials, prized for their tall, straight spires in a rich colour range and held proudly above the shapely, deep green leaves.

BY GEORGE 

In gardening history, the names ‘Russell’ and ‘Lupin’ are inseparable. George Russell was a humble gardener employed by the Terry’s chocolate family in York. In his spare time, he bred lupins on his allotment. His aim was to develop bi-coloured varieties with longer flower-spikes.

In 1937, at the age of 80, he exhibited his best at a Royal Horticultural Society flower show in Westminster.

You can find out more about Russell on the West Country Lupins website (westcountry lupins.co.uk). Expect to be bowled over by the wonderful varieties, including bi-colours and single hues. The site also sells a range of lupin seeds.

Lupins are easy to grow from seed and much cheaper than buying plants. From West Country, a £5 packet contains about 20 seeds. Russell-type lupins have the greatest garden value. But tree lupins have their place, too. One that appeals is Lupinus Lavender Spires, whose short spikes carry blue and white flowers. You can buy this variety from crocus.co.uk.

BEST IN THE SUN 

Lupins prefer free-draining soils in sun. If your ground is heavy, work well-rotted compost into the soil. Adding grit or coarse sand to clay soils can also help. Being tall, their stems benefit from support.

Though perennial, lupins lose their mojo after a few seasons. For most perennials, division keeps them young. But lupins sulk if the plants are split, so it’s better to take basal cuttings.

The time for that is March.

Cuttings must be taken before the stems thicken. Early next spring, select and cut away young, non-flowering shoots from the outsides of the plant.

Using a knife, cut the stem at or just below soil level. To root readily, shoots should be cut at the point where the stem joins the root-top.

It’s fiddly but lupins grow quickly from seed. So leave a few pods for ripening and cut remaining stems back. Lupins naturalise readily. So scatter seeds on a sunny bank. The lupins will do the rest.