Over the years  there have been many plants that I have tried unsuccessfully to grow. Failure comes with the territory. Weather, soil conditions, critter; they all  conspire against me in  many of my great plans and I have come ultimately come to accept those failures,

except for the lupines.

Winston Churchill said ‘Never give up on something that you can’t go a day without thinking about”, and while that may be a slight exaggeration in this case, each and every time I see lupines growing , flourishing even, in other gardens I get a little flash of sadness mixed with envy because try as I might, I haven’t been able to grow them.

I planted lupines in my very first garden here. They died immediately . They never even tried to make it, they just looked around at all the sand, blazing hot sun, and inhospitable conditions and promptly gave up the ghost.

Not to be thwarted in my efforts I set about starting seeds ( both directly in the soil and in seed trays) and buying more plants to try in other locations. Misery and death followed quickly and each seedling and plant succumbed to the harsh  conditions here. No amount of soil augmentation or watering would appease them and I was at the end of my rope. Some plants I could live without, but not lupines. They are an English Cottage Garden stalwart, expected and demanded to show themselves in any garden calling itself such. I HAD to have them.

Well, last summer i seeded again into trays and watched with great anticipation as many germinated and took hold. By mid-season it was clear I had grown a batch of happy healthy plants, and the were planted out in several garden  locations later in the summer. I started with about 15 plants, 5 went into the caged off blueberry bed for rabbit protection, 5 into the Pink Garden, and the others out back.

Ladies and Gentlemen I give you my very first overwintered and blooming lupine

TA-DA!!!!!!! I couldn’t be happier. three survived in the Pink Garden and two in the blueberry bed.   Five out of fifteen  , but five  is really the important number here.

Five lupines.

Five.

i am so happy I am even skipping outside to mulch , a chore I usually dread. 🙂