With the Lupines: I've just read in several places that lupines prefer neutral to acidic soil, pH of 6.5-7. Lime makes soil alkaline, it's true, but many times it's added into potting mixes because there's also an acidic ingredient like peat. For instance, a standard recipe for home-made soilless seed starting mix is peat, perlite and a little lime. The lime is not added to make it alkaline, it's added to neutralize the acidity of the peat. My personal opinion is that since neutral soil is fine for lupines, it's not very helpful to gardeners to tell them to avoid any soil that has lime in it! Plus, some people have to add a lot of lime just to get their soil from 5.5 up to 6.5. Regardless, you may want to stick with a lime-free mix, just because you really want success this year. Also, what if the bagged mix has too much lime, and isn't neutral but alkaline? I second Tiffy on avoiding the really cheap soil. If it isn't pretty fluffy, you're not going to get happy seedlings. See the recent thread on "does soil really matter?"

Zinnias, like most annuals, need to complete their life cycle in a single season so they need to develop roots, grow fast, produce foliage and colorful blooms fairly quickly so as to attract pollinators, then produce seeds with the goal of continuing their species. Lupines & other perennials germinate and develop seed leaves followed by their first "true" leaves that resemble the mature plant's leaves. But they can take the time to develop healthy root systems because they're not up against the calendar like annuals. Many perennials will not bloom the first season when grown from seed because they're putting all their energy into developing strong root systems and plant structure to support their subsequent growth years. Perennial flower production can wait until the plant is mature, strong & healthy. My seed-grown lupines didn't bloom until their second year but the show was well worth the wait. Another tip about lupines: they do best in lousy soil. The plants in the photos are growing in my neighbor's south foundation bed where I planted them because the soil is nothing more than sand and rocks. The ones I planted in my healthy, sandy garden loam that's rich with worm p**p didn't do anywhere near as well.

Sounds like root maggot. Since you're growing from seed they must have gotten into your soil. Were you using new potting soil, clean pots? Hoping for the best. Libby

Hi Juju, Don't know for sure if they're aphids or not without some closeup pics, but if that's what you have, I recommend you skip the garlic and give them a bath! Add a couple big squirts of Palmolive dishwashing soap to water in a spray bottle and thoroughly saturate the entire plant with the solution. Don't do it when the sun is shining on them. Do it when it's completely cloudy (which isn't gonna happen for the next many days), or do it in the evening after they're out of the sun for the rest of the day. After spraying, wait a half an hour or so till it dried and then hose the whole plant down with a strong spray of water from the hose. And if they're really bad, I recommend waiting till it's dried from that and then saturating the whole plant with the soap solution again--and leave it dry and just leave it on. The soap solution works well for aphids and mites, but if you have something else, it might not! If you only had a few, I'd just recommend spraying it once and letting it on, but from your post, I get the impression that you have a really bad infestation! Spraying them the first time will "take away a lot of their defenses," and then the hosing down will wash a lot of them off of the plant. Spraying the second time will re-soap any that are left! And if they're as bad as it sounds, you may need to repeat the soap spray every few days until they're all gone. If you have a pressure sprayer, it makes it a LOT easier to thoroughly cover all the foliage, stems, and buds/flowers. I keep a 2-gallon sprayer full of soapy water in summer and hit anything that has any---even one!--aphids or appears to be getting mites. But always, always do it when they're not in the sun! Impossible to tell if the one you cut all the way down will come back or not, but be sure you don't overwater it--plants with no/little foliage use extremely little water. Just be sure the soil doesn't dry out completely. And you might want to find a way to shade it enough to keep the really hot sun off of it until it gets going again--or until it goes into the bright light-----I mean the Bright GREEN Light! ;-) Good luck! Let us know how they're doing. Welcome to RMG, Skybird