In a a Vase, on Monday – Leapin’ Lupins!

Chris Mousseau

Every Monday, Cathy at Rambling In The Garden encourages us to share a vase highlighting what’s growing in our gardens. For the second week in a row, lilacs are in full, glorious bloom in my part of southeast Ontario, and I DID have a large vase full of them for a while on the dining room table. Photos; however, will have to wait, I’m thinking for a throwback sometime when it’s cold and grey, like November, because it’s now the end of May, and that means lupins (Lupine sp)and Iris are starting to look even more spectacular.

I have loads of hybrid lupins in my garden; they seem to love the heavy clay and can tolerate our dry summers. Surprisingly, the same can be said for Iris, even Siberian Iris. I love both the traditional dark blue varieties as well as the pale blue, nearly white ones.

I have two monitors – one on my laptop and a separate, stand alone one, and the colour is quite different on each. So I’m not sure if you’re seeing the vibrant, saturated colour that I see on my monitor, or the more muted, even dull colours I see on my laptop… These photos have not been edited (except for size) – so if you think the colour is super-saturated, that’s exactly what I was seeing in the garden yesterday morning when cutting these flowers. I added a Red Osier Dogwood branch to the arrangement, as well as a pure white, medium bearded Iris.

I love the details in each of these flowers, and am especially amazed by the geometry in the lupin buds, as they emerge on the flower stalk.

Have a great week everyone!

23 Comments

  4. Such a good collection of flower types and rich range of colors. The lupines are wonderful. I planted a huge number of perennial lupines in December, having never grown them before. They are scattered throughout the garden and have leaves but are so slow! I do hope to see a few. Your hybrids are an inspiration and I love the irises of course.

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    1. Thanks! I find some lupins will bloom the same year they’re planted, some wait s year…I’m not expecting any flowers this year from the ones that just germinated this spring.

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  5. I noticed the pattern too – nature at her best! It’s intriguing to compare the differences in colour on two monitors – I think I might be getting the muted colours on my laptop here! Your leapin’ lupins make effective partners for your irises – thanks for sharing

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  6. I never read ‘lupine’ without thinking of our bluebonnets, but these are fully as attractive. The colors are so rich and varied. I think that’s why the second photo’s my favorite; the combination of colors seems just right to me.

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  7. Just beautiful….two of my favorite flowers-lupines and irises! In my old garden I had a meadow full of native lupines.

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  8. Oh, such yummy rhododendron like colors for those lupines. You know, I have never grown any of those sorts. I grow only the common native sort, which are exclusively blue. Yellow lupines are wild here, but I have never worked with them.

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    1. You’re right – they do have rhodo like colours! I can’t remember seeing a yellow Lupine here, nor white, for that matter, although I do have some blue and white ones every year.

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