Quite right kc (can I call you kc?). Any herbaceous perennial is likely to be a target in the early stages of its growth every year. One option is to make a sort of chicken wire cloche that permanently lives over the crown of the plant to protect the young shoots as they emerge. The plants will grow through it perfectly well as a rule and the cloches disappear for most of the year.
However
Lupins are one of the more toxic plants in the garden. Rabbits and deer may still eat them but if they go away with a bellyache, then so long as the plant survives the first attack, they will probably then be left alone until a different rabbit comes along to make the same mistake. Slugs are an entirely different matter - they will decimate your lupins in no time flat, and a wire cloche will make that worse, because the thrushes and blackbirds that might otherwise have found and eaten the slugs won't be able to get at them. Lupins also have quite a big central stem which may, if the plant survives that long, lift the 'hat' as it grows. Which would be, er, less attractive than one might want. So with lupins (and foxgloves and euphorbia) I'd be inclined to let the plant fend for itself as far as Peter and his siblings are concerned and concentrate on the slugs.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
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However
Lupins are one of the more toxic plants in the garden. Rabbits and deer may still eat them but if they go away with a bellyache, then so long as the plant survives the first attack, they will probably then be left alone until a different rabbit comes along to make the same mistake. Slugs are an entirely different matter - they will decimate your lupins in no time flat, and a wire cloche will make that worse, because the thrushes and blackbirds that might otherwise have found and eaten the slugs won't be able to get at them. Lupins also have quite a big central stem which may, if the plant survives that long, lift the 'hat' as it grows. Which would be, er, less attractive than one might want. So with lupins (and foxgloves and euphorbia) I'd be inclined to let the plant fend for itself as far as Peter and his siblings are concerned and concentrate on the slugs.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”