I guess i am the only one that is this excited, LOL. Now I have to add one to the list.

Wild prairie lupine, it is the only larvae food for the endangered Karner Blue Butterfly. I am going to cross my fingers that I can grow this plant so I can share seeds with everyone I know, so therefore we can maybe help this beautiful butterfly.

Ok cheesy but hey that is me, LOL.

Here is a link that might be useful: Karner Blue Butterfly

I'm going to try that one too, though I doubt I'll see any Karners. They'll also be the first lupines I've ever grown. I can't say that I'm more excited about growing one thing more than something else, but I am excited because I'll be able to have a new bed next year that's almost four times the size I had before, so I can plant lots of stuff, mostly natives. I'm also going to plant for the butterflies and their cats, and of course the hummingbirds.

Karen

I have tried a lupine in the past and I think I over fertilized it, well it didn't make it. So I figured I would try this one and I am not going to fertilize it, lol. I doubt I will get any karner either but if nothing else I can at least save the seeds of this plant and maybe give them to people up north where they are a little more prevalent.

I am excited about all of the things I will be growing but some things I am really really excited about. I love multi purpose plants!! Like I had been wanting marojam for sometime and I didn't realize till last night all of the health benefits of the little plant. Then I found another herb that I had never heard of called allheal, it is also a rare herb that is suppose to have great health benefits. So many plants that I am happy to be growing and I can't wait to save the seeds to offer to others.

I am thankful I found this forum in order to give me some great ideas on economic growing. Without it I wouldn't be able to do a quarter of what I am planning!!

I am going to try clematis and cannas for the first time. Also red zebra tomatoes.

I WS canna seeds from connietn this year & they grew as tall as I am but didn't bloom. I don't think the growing season is long enough for them to bloom from seed but the plants were gorgeous. I'll save the tubers & start them in the spring so I get flowers next year.

I'm excited about growing more blackberry lilies now I found a free seed source just a mile away. Also have high hopes I can grow toad lily from seeds off my own plants.

My neighbor brought me lupine seeds she got from a friend who visited Acadia National Park so I'm excited about growing these Canadian natives. Lupines do really well here--they must like the sandy soil. Same with Montauk daisies.

I found seeds in my Russian sage and am going to WS those. I know they take forever to grow from seed but that's the challenge. I'm guessing white spike gayfeather is similar but again, I'm looking forward to seeing how they do via WS. The butterfly bush & turtlehead I WS this year actually bloomed so there's no doubt in my mind I can grow the others via WS and have amazing plants.

carolyn - I read somewhere that lupines planted in good, rich soil will flop (mine did) while lupines planted in bank run gravel (like my neighbors') will stand tall & grow healthy & strong. I think I also read they absolutely can't be transplanted. FWIW the pure white lupine I WS bloomed September 18. Imagine that!

Oh, almost forgot - I harvested hypericum/St. John's wort and spiraea seeds from my other neighbor's shrubs and will WS those as well. He has some nice size shrubs that were loaded with seed pods so naturally I harvested them. I ask you, what else is a seed addict expected to do? Let them just fall on the ground?

Well that is a good thing that you said that about the lupines cause I was seriously thinking about amending the one bed with more organic material. Sounds like that might not be my best beat.

I can not believe yours bloomed in September. Did you cut it back after the first bloom or was that the first bloom of the season??

I wonder if the canadian lupine is the same as the prairie lupine?? If so that is awesome!!

I heard someone else mention turtle head those things are neat looking. Those are native right?? I know I don't need anything else to add to my growing list this year, but keep me in mind next year for some of the seeds. So far without including the round robin I am in, looks like I have close to 150 different seeds to grow. Only 7 so far have been sown. Oh my!!! I am crazy!!

It was the first bloom of the season on a plant I WS & grew from seed this year. I planted others on the south side of my neighbor's house--she loves lupines--and one bloomed back toward the middle of May. This one I planted later on the south side of my house in full sun.

I tried to paste a photo so you could see it but the instructions Neil gave me for posting pictures don't work anymore.

The only supplemental water it got during the drought was a drip system--I poked a pinhole an inch from the bottom of empty cat litter jugs, filled them with water & set them close to the plants. The water drained out of the jug in a thin stream right at the base of the plant so as not to waste any. Worked pretty good--I lost fewer plants that way.

The perennial lupine (lupinus perennis), the lupine that the Karners use, likes sandy soil that stays on the dry side. They have a long taproot that searches for water deep into the ground. Which is kind of crappy for me since my soil is clay, but I plan to amend a little raised spot with sand to plant the lupine, and mix it with a couple others that like the drier soil (asclepias tuberosa, for one). I have some rocks I'm going to use hold the raised area to make it blend with the rest of the bed to look more natural. Hopefully the plan in my head will work out when I'm able to do it next spring.

Karen

Rosemary. And more rosemary. And just about everything else, too.

Ohhhhh, I need to rethink my location I was planning entirely with the lupine. I was thinking about planting it like regular lupine. In the back of my mind I was like well this is a native wildflower that lives in meadows. Still I wasn't putting it together. I have several spots that are sunnier and a dry spot in my yard is not hard to find. I can easily amend some sand or rocks to make a great little area. I am more limited on the humus rich soil but I believe we all have that one bed that is almost like a bog. My huckleberries and lobelia will love that bed.

Most of my yard is awful clay, but I will make a bed just for this one and yes it is the lupinus perennis.

Here you go gardenweed!! Info on uploading pictures. Many links here.

I like pictures, lol.

Here is a link that might be useful: help links for gardenweb

Thanks for the link carolyn but that's exactly what I AM doing and the pictures don't show. All I get is a little box with a red 'X' in it.

{{gwi:437966}}

Well spread jelly on me & stake me to a fire-ant hill!! It worked!!!

It sure did work, and that lupine is absolutely gorgeous!! Oh boy I wish I was there just to stick my nose in and see if has as pretty of a scent.

Gorgeous. I wish I could grow lupine but it just melts away after the seedlings get transplanted.

I am excited about growing:

- As many different penstemons as I can swap seeds for (I've yet to see a penstemon I didn't like)

- Tall, multi-colored columbine and painted daisy - I have just the place for them.

- primulas - someone on my walking route grows the goldlace primroses in full sun (!) with little or no irrigation and they are doing fine....

- coral honeysuckle - I don't really want another one, but I figure I can probably find someone local who'll take it off my hands. Since it's a vine, it wont take up much space if I have to wait until it blooms before someone will take it.

- Any of the other items I might get from trading.

I will also enjoy growing these flowers that I know I can depend on: foxglove, maltese cross, cardinal flower, delphineum.

I'll add that I'm very excited about WS more hollyhocks & hardy hibiscus. I grew both this year from traded seeds and they bloomed first year. I was SO thrilled when the "dinner plate" flowers bloomed! I harvested seeds off those & the hollyhocks. One of the hollyhocks is a pink double, the other is a burgundy single but both are stunning. I've got the pink one planted along the split rail fence. The frilly pink flower makes a nice contrast against the rugged, weathered wood of the fence.

That is a nice bloom!! I also am planning on growing 2 different hollyhocks this year. A light pink one with a yellow center single bloom, I forgot the name of it. Also a black hollyhock, alcea niger. I think the idea of a black flower is really growing on me, at first I kinda was taken back but now, I can't wait to see it bloom.

This will be my first year to also grow the cardnial flower and delphinium also.

Cutting way back on wintersowing this winter but will be focusing on Agastache, hollyhocks and of course zinnias. Age is catching up with me (66 now) and time to slow down and just enjoy our little paradise. Hubby and I concentrated on propagating more shrubs this summer and working on lower maintenance gardens. Drought and an extremely hot summer also helped make the decision. I lost so much of what I wintersowed last winter due to over 90 days of 90 plus temps and no rain. Survival of the fittest was the rule this summer and agastache won out plus the hummingbirds just love them. I will always have hollyhocks - they make me smile :) ......

Lynne

I wanna grow penstemons. Lots of different ones. Every one I can find. I LOVE penstemons!

milkweeds, sambucus, more husker reds. I'll try to see if I'll be able to harvest from my soapwort.

I always wait till the first half of December to decide what I am WS. For a friend I am WS some hollyhocks. And of course some daylilies. Maybe some Livingstone Daisy. :-) Haven't gone through my seed stash yet that's in the frig. My goal is to WS at least 20 to 25 containers. I am sowing fewer containers and being more selective this year.

Best to you,
Sandra aka quiltingfox

That is my problem it is hard to be selective. I can't decide even after typing up a spread sheet with all of the facts on each. I still have a problem deciding, so I will just grow the majority of what I got, lol. I do not know where I am going to put it all, I do not know where I am going to put all of my containers. By george though I am going to do it though.

Another horrible thing is that I put this post up so people could give me more ideas. That is sincerely how bad I got it. (And the truth came out)

I have not done any real serious wsing for 2 yrs due to health problems so now I am getting excited already and I have help this year.Both of my Jap maples are full of seeds,so plan on wsing those seeds and hopefully will get some seedling,I want to do alot of perennials,and in late winter will do my veges like tomatoes,peppers etc.I hope to sow seeds I get from trades and have never tried before
moonphase

Penstemon 'Husker's Red' and Poppy 'Coral Reef' ! Also more Virginia Bluebells...

I hope our local groundhogs won't eat the penstemon...

Moonphase there is the winter sowers swap you should jump in then. I think right now we have over 30 signed up. That invite is to anyone else also.

The huskers red is a total eye catcher at this time of the year!! I love that color!!

I WS wild Lupine last year. It germinated really well and the seedlings did great for the first month or so in the ground. But by the end of June all of my seedlings one by one shriveled up or just disappeared. It was depressing. My soil is mostly clay, so I suspected that was the problem. I secretly hope they are just going to reappear next spring . . .
:)

Oh, weebay that's so sad about your lupines. About half my WS lupines did great after planting out but a handful just kept getting smaller & smaller as the weeks went by with no rain, despite being watered. The ones I kept in containers of potting mix right through the season are very robust looking plants. I'm going to let them go dormant & keep them in pots over the winter. I just can't get enough lupines after seeing photos showing acres upon acres of them blooming up in Canada.

I harvested seeds from this one in my neighbor's flowerbed:

This one called 'Chandelier' is growing in a part sun/part shade area of my garden
{{gwi:437970}}
Harvesting the seeds is so easy too.

Man I only hope I can get that one lupine to grow. Those things are gorgeous!! I love lupine!! The foliage is so nice and pretty even when there aren't blooms. I am going to be so sad if I can't get this lupine to grow.

I don't think lupines like clay, nor alkaline soil. In my experience, they weren't too wild about our hot Cincinnati summers, either. It's another plant that I tried, then evicted from my yard.

I keep trying different plants, thinking I'll find the perfect flowers for my likes, my yard, my soil... I just keep trying. I guess I'm just too hard to please!

Karen

I don't think it will like my heat or my clay either but I do plan to get some sand and mix extremely well with my clay and organic material. I am thinking since the one I am growing has a tap root I will need to go down pretty deep with the sand mix. I am going to give it my all!! I do not like amending soil, but this is about the only plant I am willing to do that for. I absolutely adore lupines!! Especially the lupinus perennis, which is blue!! My favorite color is blue.

Gardenweed,
Your photos of the lupine are so wonderful! Makes me think try try again! Even though I have the same condition as Karen, dreaded alkaline, clay soil, so many plants hate it. How old are those lupine plants in your photos? I am so jealous . . .

The soil where these are growing is rocky, sandy probably slightly acid New England dirt. Oaks, pines & blueberries thrive here so that just confirms the soil conditions. When I planted WS lupines near where the blue one is growing (in my neighbor's flowerbed), they quickly grew to full size and one even bloomed. Then I planted one on the south side of my own house and it bloomed Sept. 18. WS plants are just stronger & tougher all around from what I can see so these should do well in our climate & soil conditions. I plan to WS as many containers as I have seeds for this year. My goal is to have such a sea of blooms, you can't see anything else.

Weebay, keep the faith! My native blue lupines die back every summer and come back in the spring! I've bookmarked this thread to add some of these suggestions to my wish list later!

Love the lupines, gardenweed!

Those lupines are beautiful. Will they grow in zone 5a? Send me seeds please! HEHEHE! I'm serious, HEHEHE! :D

Those are like inverted wisteria racemes!!! :)

The lupine foliage is so gorgeous all season even though the bottom leaves touch the ground. There are more than a dozen seedpods on the white one that bloomed in Sept. that I'm keeping a close eye on but with the colder temps, does anyone know if they will ripen before the plant goes dormant? The forecast calls for 30's tomorrow night. I'm guessing the seedpods will freeze along with the rest of the plant but they're still green. It's pretty certain the seeds aren't ripe. I was really hoping to harvest the seeds. Not sure I have enough of the other seeds for trades but I'll let you know.

I wanted to know that very exact question if a plant will produce viable seeds after or during frost or freeze. Well someone had asked it on the seed propagation forum. The answer was, as long as the plant is alive meaning green foliage and such then it will still be able to produce viable seed.

Here is the link to it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Seed after frost