Spectacular Native Lupines Bloom Again at The Small House in SW MI
I am totally in love with native plants and especially native Lupines. I am creating a bed of them in front of my home and have been adding seed propagated starts to my bed each year. I love their showy purple color with dark green foliage and steadfast nature and they love my sandy, lean soil and hot sun – just like in the nearby oak savannah forest where they proliferate. They bloom every year and spread by seeds and new plants pop up everywhere much to my amazement and delight.
I'm creating a focal boarder of Lupines (and red daylilies) in front of our brown brick raised bed where they thrive in the hot and dry conditions found there. They have a long taproot and so cannot be transplanted. Small transplants do not bloom the first year but overwinter so well that can be counted on to bloom in the spring. Long lasting many plants live up to 15 years.
My Lupines are mulched in bark chips – no fertilizer necessary. A member of the pea family, Fabaceae, and a herbaceous perennial, Lupines fix nitrogen in the soil and a pollinator habitat - a bonus.
Lupines are the host plant for the elusive and endangered Karner Blue butterfly and should be cultivated and protected as such.
I'm creating a focal boarder of Lupines (and red daylilies) in front of our brown brick raised bed where they thrive in the hot and dry conditions found there. They have a long taproot and so cannot be transplanted. Small transplants do not bloom the first year but overwinter so well that can be counted on to bloom in the spring. Long lasting many plants live up to 15 years.
My Lupines are mulched in bark chips – no fertilizer necessary. A member of the pea family, Fabaceae, and a herbaceous perennial, Lupines fix nitrogen in the soil and a pollinator habitat - a bonus.
Lupines are the host plant for the elusive and endangered Karner Blue butterfly and should be cultivated and protected as such.
Purple Lupines with mid-green foliage adds a punch of color to my early spring garden.
Lush, beautiful and hardy, these Lupines are the centerpiece of the front of my home gardens. Lupines are a nitrogen fixer and pollinator habitat and attract lots of bumblebees!
Wild growing Lupines reach for the sun in a meadow in the Allegan Forest, Allegan, MI - a favorite destination for our spring hikes.
Lupines grow in masses, reseed and are a perfect companion in a wooded birch grove.
A favorite place for portraits, this grove of Lupines makes a unique setting. My husband Gene and our two dogs pose.
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4 comments
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Beautiful....cute dogs too!!
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Love the native lupines. You are lucky to have such a beautiful stand of them.
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@Douglas Hunt Thanks Douglas. Actually, in kind of a convoluted way I am lucky to have the right soil for Lupines!! The rest is about hard work!
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