Lupines and More

MY FIRST EXPOSURE to Lupines took place decades ago in northern New Hampshire while visiting my youngest sister.

The flowers had blanketed a field behind the country inn where my family and I were having brunch. What a sight to see; the blue spikes looking like miniature rockets with their pea-shaped flowers produced acres of rather stunning bright blue and purple landscapes. If I knew how to draw or paint, I could have spent the day there and captured the breathtaking sight on canvas. iPhones were not yet invented. Thank goodness for my working memory.

I now realize that they are also called bluebonnets and have been noted in literature for centuries as restorative to the soil. They add nitrogen from their underground root nodules, much like alfalfa. It is not advisable to let livestock graze the landscape while in bloom because of the alkaline toxicity in their seed pods. I guess that’s a survival mechanism at work. I’ll let the scientists debate their danger and invasive tendencies from that point of view. I’m in it for their ornamental appeal. Period.

I took the above photo in mid-June in my garden at my loft in Beulah. This year, three clumps of Lupine persist. I have had as many as five individual plants in the past when I tended to my garden on a more regular basis.

I have focused on letting my garden do its own thing without too much intervention (we used to call it weeding). I’ve succumbed to the popular movement of favoring biodiversity as my new mantra; Goldenrod seems to like my little patch of garden these days, and its underground rhizomes are trying their best to colonize my ever-changing garden. I’m promoting the concept of a pollinator garden, and the late summer flowers of Goldenrod help bees, butterflies, and birds in need of nectar and seeds for their sustenance at that time of the year. Every plant plays its part.

Finally, I spotted a ruby-throated hummingbird last week in the early morning while I was enjoying a cup of coffee on my porch. The energetic hummingbird was going from flower to flower in the Siberian Irises that had decided they liked the edges of my garden. I used to have that much energy decades ago, my thoughtful takeaway.

I’m glad that my little visitors have frequented my garden spot. It is such a pleasure to be part of the workings.