I am trying to follow Christopher Lloyds practice of growing some
short
lived perennials, such as Lupins, Foxgloves and more, as biennials -
in a
reserve area. He planted Lupins late to stop them flowering in the
first
year. The implication is that they weaked the plant. Does anyone have
any
evidence of this. And could you not plant earlier (for bigger plants)
and just cut the flowering stems off.

I'd have thought, on cold clay in Yorkshire, you'd find it difficult
to
get lupins to flower the first year whatever you did.

I thought Christopher Lloyd did not like lupins-I remembering him saying
they flower briefly and then don't do much other than attract greenfly:-)
My sister grows lupins(biennial/perennial) from seed very early and gets a
late flush of flowers the same year. They then get composted unless there
is
any particular star performer. She seems to avoid the dreaded greenfly
problem by this method.

C Lloyd did grow Lupins, but because you can't do anything with them
afterwards, he grew them as biennials then composted them. He sowed them in
autumn so they would flower early the next year. I wish them to flower early
too, as I have a shortage of good early flowering plants and a surplus of
good late flowering plants. I appreciate they don't flower for that long, so
would be grateful of any suggestions of other early flowering biennials. I
am resorting to biennial as a supplement to the small number of early
flowering perennials, that can be lifted after flowering to make way for a
second shift of later flowering plants.