Lupin good! It’s back to these colourful charmers

SOME time ago, after repeated infestations of one of my least favourite bugs, I gave up growing lupins.

Despite being easy to grow, colourful, and packed with cottage garden charm, I got fed up seeing my plants being destroyed by lupin aphids.

If you have never seen these pests then you are lucky. Big and beefy, an ominous grey and twice the size of greenfly, they are voracious and cover stems of infected plants with what looks like armour plating.

Now though I’m just about to start growing lupins again and I’m not alone.

Lupins have become fashionable and they dominated displays at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show.

The reason is the work that has been done by breeders to create vibrant new strains that are strong and healthy and come in all sorts of enticing shades.

Some, like ‘Masterpiece’, which is purple with orange flecks, ‘Towering Inferno’, which is flaming orange and ‘Manhattan Lights’, a combination of purple and yellow, are real headturners, but there are just as many subtle shades to choose from, which makes them suitable for every garden – and the fact that, with the exception of chalky soil or ground that’s been heavily matured, lupins will grow just about anywhere.

Lupins seldom need staked but plants can run out of steam if not divided.

Growing from seed is straightforward but is only useful if you want to grow lots of different colours, otherwise they are best raised from cuttings so you can be sure of what you are getting.

Slugs and snails have a taste for lupins, so protect young foliage with beer traps or a perimeter of crushed eggshells and if you spot the dreaded lupin aphid – act quickly.

Spraying with soft soap and cutting affected plants down to ground level will both help.

Lupins are at their best in large drifts, but dotting them around the garden as single plants is seldom effective.

Bees love lupins and the sound of their buzzing as they seek out the nectar is familiar anywhere they are grown.

Lupins also have lovely foliage, which looks marvellous when sprinkled with raindrops. It retains its freshness through the summer and is useful in spring when it starts to emerge for covering up the leaves of bulbs as these die down.

Lupins are as at home in a border as they are grown with grasses and prairie plants. I’ve even seem them growing in swathes in meadows in a combination of blues, pinks, reds and purples.

I’ve just ordered a few small pots of the carmine-coloured Lupin ‘The Pages’ which I’ll grow on over winter and use as stock plants for cuttings next April.

I have my eye on the yellow flowered Lupin ‘Chandelier’ which I’m also tempted to add to the garden.

Fingers crossed the lupin aphid doesn’t follow them.