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elegant lupine

Lupinus elegans · Fabaceae

elegant lupine (Lupinus elegans)
Photo: Henry G. Gilbert Nursery and Seed Trade Catalog Collection.; Wm. C. Beckert (Firm) · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

elegant lupine (Lupinus elegans) is catalogued by the USDA PLANTS database. USDA records it as hardy in zone 11 and warmer, down to about 47°F.

At a glance

Mature height3 ft USDA
Lightfull-sun USDA
Water needmedium USDA
Growth raterapid USDA
Soil pH6–7 USDA
BloomAugust–September USDA
Flower colorBlue USDA
Hardiness zones11 and warmer USDA
Nursery availabilityNo Known Source USDA

USDA quoted from the USDA PLANTS database · Derived computed by a fixed rule from those columns. No value on this page is estimated.

Growing conditions

It needs full sun. USDA rates it as having moderate water needs. It is recorded on soils from pH 6 to 7 — a broad range that spans acidic through mildly alkaline ground. Its cold limit is zone 11; USDA publishes no warm-end limit, so gardeners in warmer zones should check local heat tolerance separately.

Size and growth

At maturity it reaches about 3 ft, making it a low to knee-height plant. It grows quickly, which matters when you are timing a planting around the layers above it.

Bloom period

USDA records a bloom period of August through September. The flower color USDA records is blue. Bloom timing is how the Guild Builder overlaps flowering across a planting so something is in flower for as much of the season as possible.

Bloom period is a claim about when this plant flowers. It is deliberately not a pollinator rating — no dataset we trust publishes one, so we do not make that claim. See Data & sources.

Tags

deciduousclay-tolerantdeer-resistantnitrogen-fixerfull-sunfast-growing

Related plants

Others in Lupinus

Where this data comes from

Every value on this page comes from the USDA PLANTS database record for symbol LUEL4, or is computed from those values by a fixed rule. Nothing here is estimated or model-generated. Where USDA publishes no value, this page omits the claim rather than filling the gap.

Read our full data sources and methodology.

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