This is the journal of my endeavours to grow a range of fruit, veg and flowers from seed, grow organically, and my attempts to create a personal paradise with 1/2 acre of maintained gardens and 1/2 acre wild meadows. Northern Ireland's average daily high temperatures are 18 °C (64 °F) in July and 6 °C (43 °F) in January. Soil type: Clay

Wednesday 13 June 2012

Bendy Lupin Flowers


After our two weeks of really warm weather and sunshine we're back to grey skies and rain. The forecast for the rest of June isn't great but hopefully some sunny days will appear. The plants have been under a bit of stress from weather extremes and I think this has caused some of my plants, like turnips, to bolt. Watching Gardener's World on Sunday makes me feel better to know that Monty Don has had problems with his veg bolting. 

This year my lupin flowers have bent. I'm not sure if this is a result of weather conditions or something else. I recall reading an article about this recently but I can't remember the rationale (will have to dig through magazines to try to find the article). The flowers still look great but I'm curious why they have bent.

Variety: Lupin Russell Mix (perennial), grown from seed several years ago.

Little white lines drawn in above help show the bendy flower stems.

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.
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7 comments:

  1. Egretta Wells blog13 June 2012 at 12:48

    Bent or not the Lupines are still just beautiful. I tried planting some from seed in Florida and they came up, but died as seedlings. Probably too hot here for them. I hope you have good luck with all your veggies. It would be nice if we could order the weather we want!!Happy gardening, Kelli.

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  2. Mark Willis13 June 2012 at 13:03

    I agree with Egretta; you don't need a flower to be straight for it to be good. Lupins are impressive whatever their shape.

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  3. Crystal13 June 2012 at 14:29

    That's still a gorgeous display. I've not had bendy Lupins, but I once had bendy Honesty caused by the weather.

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  4. ann13 June 2012 at 20:18

    Your lupine look quite healthy--and heavy. Maybe so supports to get them to stand. I need to plant lupine; they can be, as yours, stunning and quite colorful.

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  5. Sue Garrett14 June 2012 at 01:52

    There is a disease called anthracnose that causes lupins to bend but there would be some browning of the stem if this was the reason - hope it isn't and just the weather causing irregular growth.

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  6. Jo14 June 2012 at 03:44

    It looks like it's only a couple of the flowers which are bending, and they don't take anything away from the wonderful display your lupins are putting on. The weather this year has a lot to answer for.

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  7. Karin / Southern Meadows14 June 2012 at 04:33

    They look gorgeous to me! Sometimes we have to throw uniformity out the window and go with the more liaise faire approach. :o)

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