GARDEN AND SHRUBBERY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18659, 30 August 1930, Page 13

GARDEN AND SHRUBBERY

HYBRID LUPINS. There is no doubt about the hardiness of lupins. The plant-3 flourish, and send up handsome flowering stems even when growing in unfriendly soil. I have seen them growing in a sunny, and in a semi-shaded place, in welldrained soil, and in soil that held water all winter, and in every case the plants were attractive (says the “Dominion’s” gardening contributor). But I have seen them also massed along the sunny edge of a creek where the soil was rich and silty, and the massive stems, over five feet high, carried wonderful heads of bloom.

Lupins make such quick response to even ordinary care that one is encouraged to make a feature of them in the garden.

If the first spikes of flower are cut off. just under the bloom, as soon as they fade, the stems at once send out laterals which flower in a short time. Indeed, by promptly cutting off faded flowers, and by watering the plants regularly, one can keep lupins in bloom most of the summer. Their energy in making new shoots is remarkable.

Plants may still be put in, and if a good show is wanted this summer, one-year-old plants should be bought. One of the best stains to be had is Downer’s hybrid lupins. Give the plants a good start by digging the soil thoroughly, and enriching it with well-decayed garden rubbish or manure, and, if it be heavy, coarse sand or grit. Staking should be attended to as soon as growths begin to push up, for unforttmately the plants begin flowering in November, just when we usually have a succession of heart-breaking gales. Lupins are easily raised from seeds, which may be sown in October or November. This gives seedlings time to grow into good-sized plants before their flowering season the following summer.

Very often these seedlings produce one spike of bloom in the autumn, and this gives the gardener a chance to mark them according to colour. Plants from the autumn sowing, too, will generally flower the first summer, but are not advanced enough to give a good display. ESCHSCHOLTZIAS.