Lupine was brought to Europe from North America at the beginning of the last century and won the hearts of gardeners forever with its colorful ears. The fact is that lupine flowers are collected in a large conical spike and have a lot of colors. Blooming lupine is a real find for landscape designers. Its variegation, which rises above the greenery, can perfectly decorate any corner of the garden. Moreover, the lupins bloom for a month and when using different shades in the sunny area, they look like a live firework.
If you are a busy person, decorate your site with such a plant as decorative lupins, the cultivation of which is not burdensome at all and in time you will understand how wisely you acted. Lupine is not picky about soil and tolerates drought well. Care consists in timely cultivation of plantings in the first year and the removal of weeds. Fortified plants require almost no care. In one place, lupine can grow productively up to four years, and then its flowering level decreases and it is advisable to renew it. However, only young plants tolerate the transplant well, so it’s best to keep the lupine further pleasing to your eyes, planting it again or sowing from seeds.
How to grow lupine from seeds , if you chose this method. Sowing lupins is quite simple, but the fact is that when propagating a plant from seeds there is no guarantee that the original color will be preserved, so if color preservation is important, it is best to use propagation by cuttings.
Nevertheless, if we want to have healthy and strong lupins, the cultivation of which will not cause much trouble, the sowing should be taken very seriously. You can sow the seeds of decorative lupine both in spring and in autumn, and preferably immediately to a permanent place. In the spring, you can sow immediately as the snow melts, but the land for this should be prepared from the fall. Although lupine is not capricious about the soil, it will be better if it turns out to be a loose, non-moist area. In autumn, lupins can be sown in the ground after the first frost, approximately in October. Cover for the winter is a must. Using autumn sowing, it can be expected that the plant will begin to bloom in August, while with spring sowing, flowering can be expected only next year.
In both spring and autumn sowing, the seeds are planted in the soil to a depth of three centimeters, several seeds per hole. As the seedlings appear, it is recommended to thin them and leave one at the strongest. Leave the distance between future plants to about 35 centimeters and take it into account when sowing.
How to grow lupine from cuttings, so as not to lose your favorite color? On the cuttings, you can take basal rosettes, developed from the kidneys on the root neck. However, if you are going to plant lupins, the cultivation of which you want to start with cuttings, then you need to sprinkle bushes with a fertile layer of earth in the fall, and to prolong the life of lupins and preserve its decorativeness, the plant should be spudded. All these measures contribute to the formation and development of lateral roots and the isolation of lateral rosettes because the middle part of the bush inevitably dies over time. Inflorescences that have faded and withered can be cut even before the formation of seeds, thereby providing the plant with long flowering.
In a word, perennial lupins, the cultivation of which does not take you much time, can take their rightful place in your garden. The time you save on caring for this undemanding plant can be spent on holidays with your family and just admire the generous colors that nature has given you. Where the decorative lupine is their bright embodiment.