Hi all. I bought and planted a beautiful lupin only a few weeks ago. Flowers since faded and so dead headed a week ago, but since then it’s just looked worse and worse. Is this normal? Or has it become infected by something? any ideas?
Lupins do tend to get a bit ropy looking after they've finished flowering, so unless you can see something like lupin aphids on it, it's probably just done its thing for this year.
What's the stuff around the base? It looks a bit like chicken poo pellets that have got wet - if so that's far too dense a covering, you just sprinkle them thinly. Whatever it is, it's probably best not touching the base of the plant..
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
I would guess slug and snail damage. I treat them as biennials sowing new seed in June and planting the new plants in the border in Autumn to replace the previous years plants which are usually ravaged by then.
How can you lie there and think of England When you don't even know who's in the team
Scrape the pellets away from the plant if they are chicken pellets, they’re far too strong and will burn the plant. Also, dig them into the ground around the lupin.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
They’re slug pellets - only put them down today thinking that might be the culprit. Best to leave them? I’m presuming I just leave the plant as it is now and hope for the best?
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When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
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Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.