"Victoria Clare" wrote in message
.209...
Adrian wrote in
news
Dear all,

We've sucessfully grown a large number of lupins from seed and I see
the instructions say not to plant out until Sept. Internet searches
also confirm this.

Frustratingly nobody says why! Can anyone enligten me?

Lupins are very vulnerable to slug/snail attack, and you can lose an
entire
sowing overnight (happened to me :-().

Could it be that the idea is to keep them in a slug-free environment till
they are quite big and fully hardened off so they stand a better chance
of
surviving?

Incidentally, tree lupins are much tougher and don't suffer from slugs
anything like as much. I've grown a blue-flowering one that's covered in
blooms at the moment, and has a fantastic scent (but they are quite
variable - another plant from the same packet has rather dull yellow
flowers, and no scent at all :-(.)

I have the solution . Plant the lupins and get a couple of indian runner or
call ducks to eat the slugs. Works for me :0)