Good morning and a very happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there. I hope your day is filled with happy times, good memories and grateful children.

I enjoyed all of your e-mails over the last couple of weeks, and the reaction to my last column on garden bugs was interesting. Several folks listed off many that I should have included, and they were all correct. However, the column can be only so long, as required by my editor. Because requests for info on the rose chafer beetle, which is currently in full eating mode, were many, I have added a sidebar on that little bugger.

It seems that when we have a good winter for flowers, this, unfortunately, also means a good winter for bugs. Up here on the hill and in many other places, according to folks who communicate with me, the aphids had a really wonderful winter. My lupine hill — looking absolutely beautiful (in the main photo) — is proof.

The day I took the picture, I got an e-mail from a neighbor. (Now, you need to understand that up here this particular neighbor, Jan Irish, lives about 1/2 mile away and on the other side of the mountain.) Anyway, she sent me an e-mail saying aphids were consuming her lupines. I checked mine, didn’t find any and went on my happy way. About a week later, my husband and I both noticed the blossoms drooping badly. Yep, the aphids were there by the thousands. I guess when they finished with Jan’s, they had to go somewhere.

Because I’ve received a number of questions concerning lupines, they will be the focus of today’s column.

The lupine is native to Maine; and if you drive north to “The County,” you will see entire fields covered with them. They are beautiful, but there are a few tricks to having them in your garden.

First, lupines like what is termed “lean” soil, as in regular old nonimproved soil. This is why they grow in roadside ditches and untended fields. They don’t like a lot of fertilizer and they like to be left alone. Now in gardening terms, this means a lot of people just kill them with kindness.

One of the first rules of growing gardens or houseplants, for that matter, is mimicking the natural conditions in which that plant thrives. Ferns require moisture and shade, peonies like full sun and not being moved, daisies grow just about anywhere in the sun and hellebores need woodland conditions. If you familiarize yourself with the plant, you can pretty much figure out where it will grow best and be happy.

My lupines are planted in nonimproved natural soil on a bank covered with sedum, which also doesn’t like food. I originally planted three Russell hybrid lupines from the nursery. I have said this many times in my column and will repeat — do not try to dig up wild lupines. You will likely be unsuccessful and kill them. Lupines have long tap roots and it is tough to transplant them.

You can, however, gather seeds and try transplanting them that way. From those three plants I originally planted 20 years ago, I now have four dozen, but the original three are gone. Lupines don’t live particularly long, but they reseed with the best of them. I do have perhaps a half-dozen that are huge and have come back in the same place for more than five or 10 years. But most years, a majority of the plants are from seeding. This means that if you want continual lupines for years, you have to leave the spent blossoms until they drop their seeds. If you are a neat gardener and deadhead lupines, they will slowly become weak and die off.

So, pink or purple?

I have pink lupines, both light and bright. Purple is the dominant color for lupines, and you’ll see that a lot in wild fields. The purple ones are stronger. They stand up to wind better, they resist aphids better and they come back stronger each year. Because they are stronger and always plentiful, they seed out better than the pink ones. But, of course, I like the pink ones best. So each year when the lupine blooms fade and the seed pods form, I mark the pink ones. When it starts looking really shaggy in the garden, I cut back the purple ones but leave the pink ones. So far, this has worked. I have pink ones every year, but there are still always more purple.

Now, about those feasting aphids. My usual suggestion is Murphy’s Oil Soap mixed with water, sprayed directly on the stems, leaves and blossoms. If you have a large infestation as I did, I go to Safe Soap. It is stronger than Murphy’s but still doesn’t bother the bees, which also like lupines. You need to keep at it for a few days in a row. You can usually save some of them if you catch the aphids early enough; and, needless to say, I am very careful about the pink ones. But you have to get as many of the little buggers as possible or they just move about from lupine to lupine. After seeding, the lupines can be safely cut back if you want a neater looking garden.

Lupines are also a great plant for those wild spaces that don’t get a lot of attention, as long as it is sunny. Collect some seeds from your lupines for your friends and scatter them. Sometimes they take and sometimes they don’t, but your chances are better if they are scattered when rain is forecast, followed by warm weather.

I look forward to hearing from you, fellow gardeners. So please keep e-mailing. It takes me a few days to answer because, quite honestly, I tend to the garden in the sunshine and not to my foolish computer.

Until next time, be good to Dad because he deserves it, stop and chat with a neighbor and start finding those decorations and flags because before you know it, we will be celebrating the birth of this great country and the freedoms we have.

Happy gardening.

Jody Goodwin has been gardening for more than 25 years. She lives in Turner with her husband, Ike, her dog and two cats. She may be reached by writing to her in care of the Sun Journal, 104 Park St., Lewiston, Maine, 04243-4400 or by e-mail at jodyike@megalink.net.

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