I have several lupine plants in my garden. I've gone through and snipped off the first flowering. The second flowering was pretty slim pickings. Can I dig these up and toss them? I want to plant some cosmos for some more flowers, but if the lupine plants come back I don't want to ruin their chances. My sweetie thinks we'll have more flowers off of them and I think they're about done for this year. Any advice? I'm enclosing a picture of how they look now. They were stunning two weeks ago.Sherry
Hi Sherry,
What kind of lupines are they? Perennials or annuals? If they are perennials, they should be great next year as perennials don't really get started until the second year. If annuals, they are probably done. Why not leave them and see how they do and just plant the cosmos around them?
Karen
They take up a lot of room. I don't know if they are annuals or perennials or started from seeds from last years plant. If they don't bloom anymore, I want to cut them down or replant them into a different garden or , if they're annuals... dig them out. I didn't realize there were two different kinds of lupines. In SE Alaska they grow wild.
Sherry
the yellow flowering type are normally the wild ones, I never new there were annuals Lupins either but then we learn things all the time, however you have done the right thing by cutting off the spent flower stems as these plants form large seed heads all the way down the stems and this can weaken the plants, plants use up lots of energy trying to form seeds and this can weaken plants, if you do want seeds to grow for your garden, just allow a few seed pods to form and dry to sew again next year. To dig them out and transplant them elsewhere in your garden, dont cut the foliage off them unless it is damaged, just dig the whole clump up with a good bit of soil around the roots and replant them where you want them to flower next year, add a good amount of compost / manure to the new planting hole as this will help to retain moisture as these plants are greedy for both nutrients and water, let the foliage die down naturally as this also helps feed the plants for the next growing season, if it becomes really messy, you can snip it off but try not to take too much away, these plants are tough but need to be split up say every 4 to 5 years unless you enjoy huge expanse of them. Good luck. WeeNel.
