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This is my second year of a lupine plant, and I have read it is not good for them to let the flowers die down to seed, so I cut them ans put them in a vase when they are fully flowered. The plant is beautiful, and I would like to have another in a different place. Would it tire the plant out too much to allow one of the stalks to go to seed? And where are the seeds when the flowers disappear?
I didn't know lupines would grow that far south. They grow wild here in Montana. As for tiring the plant out, letting one or two flowering stems go to seed would be just fine. The lupine seeds form in a pod. They look like small green pea pods that are in a whorl formation around the flowering stem. Hope this helps. Dee
In Nova Scotia lupines grow wild in all of the ditches along the highway. They've been there as long as I've been alive, going to seed and coming back, but a warning: they like cool nights. Have you seen them in your area?
Lupins dont always come true to form when you grow the seeds from your own plant if you want identical plants. Also be warned that lupin seeds and the pods are poisonous so always wash your hands after working with them, but they are very beautiful plants, they can also be short lived say after about five years, they start to look rather poor, but they are so easy to grow from seeds, they best way is to let one of the flower stems set seed pods, then leave them on the stem till the pods start to turn brown and dry looking, remove the dried stem/pods and take this indoors as you dont want the dried pods to fall off the stem, take the pods off the stem and snap them open gently like shelling peas, on the dried pod, if the seeds are not dry and dark in colour, then leave the stem to hang upside down for a few days to dry them off and open the pods to find the conditions already mentioned, let the seeds fall into a dish or bowl as they are round and rather large like small beads, you can either store your seeds in a paper envelope in a dark/dry area marking what seeds you have, till next early spring when you can sew them into potting compost in a pot and cover the seeds only just, keep the soil moist, not too wet, till the seeds germinate and then separate each seedling out into a single pot till the weather is warm enough to plant them out, then you care for them like a proper growing plant, or sew the seeds in autumn and care for them in the same way indoors till planting out time in spring, autumn sewing will get your plants to flower the same year you plant out but spring planting might delay the flowering till the following year, because lupin seeds are hard coated, some people, myself included soak the seeds in warm water over night to soften the hard coating they have, then plant them as stated.
Before the end of flowering time this year, and after you cut all the flower stems off, you look under all the foliage and find small side shoots growing, these are tender and if you scrape away a small bit of soil, you will find if it has a small root attached to this tender shoot, if it has, cut it away with a sharp knife and place it in a pot of compost and treat it like a tender seedling, this way you will get a new plant identical to the one you took it from, this is called side root cuttings or root cuttings, this will need to be grown on a bit before you can plant it out in the garden, hope all this helps you a bit, good luck. WeeNel.
