THE lupin is so cosily familiar as a feature of the early-summer flower border that it comes as a surprise to discover its dramatic history. We have become used to its pretty range of bicoloured flowers, easily grown from seed, and never think to express gratitude to the single-minded devotion that made such things possible. Like so many lovely things that we have come to take for granted, there is more to this than meets the eye.
We must first lift our hats to David Douglas, despatched to the west coast of North America in the 1820s. He was a hugely successful plant hunter who brought us many of our most familiar garden plants before his recklessness brought about his early death. One of his enduring legacies is Lupinus polyphyllus, a widespread species of shingly riversides from California to Alaska. Its chirpy blue and white flowers soon established themselves in Britain as garden favourites and the plant’s adaptable nature meant that, before long, the big seeds found themselves well suited to life on the other side of the wall.
This unplanned, but perhaps not unexpected, escape to the wild was such a ‘success’ (I tread carefully here) that, within 50 years, William Robinson was able to use the lupin as a model of his dubious intention to populate the countryside with foreign herbaceous perennials. When he wrote in The Wild Garden of ‘the perennial Lupine dyeing an islet with its purple in a Scotch river’, he revealed the plant seeking out the kind of habitat it had left behind thousands of miles away. It has done this around the world ever since, becoming a rather too familiar sight along the braided rivers of New Zealand, for instance.
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin May 18, 2022 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin May 18, 2022 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Every picture tells a story
As the National Gallery prepares to celebrate its 200th anniversary in May, Carla Passino delves into the fascinating history of 10 of its paintings, from artistic triumphs to ugly ducklings and a clever fake
Flying between extremes
Revisiting the Norfolk of his childhood bright, but not as early as planned on an April morning, John Lewis-Stempel is entranced by the wildlife of the Broads and spots a crane so large it renders his binoculars redundant Illustration by Michael Frith
Satan on six legs
The prowling embodiment of Beelzebub, the Devil's coach horse beetle could absolve you of all your sins, says Ian Morton
Sometimes, less is more
FASHIONS in gardening come and go like those on the catwalk, they simply take a lot longer doing so: sometimes decades.
Dropping down to Derwentwater
The gardens of High Moss, Portinscale, Cumbria The home of Peter and Christine Hughes Non Morris visits a much-loved, Historically fascinating Arts-andCrafts garden, which has been imaginatively brought back to life
A Georgian legacy
Down in Wiltshire and Somerset, two country houses and estates have been well tended by their owners
Processions, proclamations and punishment
The wayside crosses that were once beacons in the British landscape have seldom survived the forces of Nature and iconoclasm. Lucien de Guise follows a trail of destruction
A sparkling collection
Guided by the nose of wine expert Harry Eyres, the COUNTRY LIFE team tasted some of England's finest sparkling wines and found elegance and finesse, with notes of hedgerows and seaside air, to compete with any fizz from across the Channel-surely, this is what we should be drinking now Qu
Hampering after summer
Lifting the lid on a sturdy hamper to find cold ham and ginger beer is a summer joy. Julie Harding meets the wicker weavers who make the dream come true
Life's a picnic
With picnic season fast approaching, it's time to elevate your alfresco feast to Michelin-star levels of deliciousness. Here, Paul Henderson asks a selection of the finest chefs to open up their picnic baskets and share some of their top tips for culinary success