A few lupins

Whis4ey - I do understand your brother's position. Its only now after gardening for several years that I have started to think ahead and grow biennials for the next year.

Flowerpot - its all a matter of choice. My own preference is to continue growing them in pots - increasing the pot size as they get bigger. My own pots are on a concrete area, which is more difficult for the slugs to get at. You may not get much, if any, flower this year so I don't see any rush to plant them out before autumn. I aways have too many plants so my borders will be full of late flowering plants from July on - such as Dahlias, Cosmos, Cleome etc. Consequently I won't have the space in the border, but if you have an area in the border already for them you could plant them out a lot earlier.

Ellie - I would leave the seed pods on till they go black and start to open (and let the seeds fall out). You could always just let one or two go to seed and cut the rest down for a second crop of flowers. If you sow the seeds (I soak them to get them to germinate) this year the new plants should put on a good show next year.

 

Do the seedlings reflect the same colour as the parents?

 

I have wondered that myself whis4ey. In general I think the answer is no, but its a bit complicated.

If they are from a pure bred single colour strain, where both parents are pure bred single colours, then the childen will be pure bred single colours. Yours may be this.

However if they are an F1 hybrid, ie a first generalion offspring from two different pure bred parents, the F1 hybrids themselves will all be the same colour, but their children will be F2 hybrids and have throw backs to the original parent strains. So you can get mixed colours.

If they are mongrels from mixed parentage, or if they are the result of cross fertilisation with a different variety, they could be any colour.

 

PeterS, thanks for the advice, i will pot them on and leave them a little big longer, and then decide what to do with them :thumb:

 

I think that the lupins have been especially good this year, quite a good showing indeed.

 

Lupins were rubbish last year, eaten by bugs unknown. This year fabulous. Why ? No idea !!!

 

looks lovely - my lupins are rather fab as well :-)

 

Not in my experience,like Hellebores they are promiscuous, and seedlings come up every colour under the sun.

But I love to be surprised what they throw up as seedlings. But there can be some horrible colours!
Nice colours I take cuttings off ( though they don't always root) that way I get to keep thet ones I like!

Like the old saying-- you can be pretty sure who you mother was
But you never can be sure who your father was!

cherrio