NewsJardinTV, the channel that, with you, shares 100% of the passion for plants, gardens, botany, nature and gardening, offers you issue 342 of its show "Le Quotidien du Jardin" produced by Nicole and Patrick Mioulane. Combi du Haut asks us the following question: I am passionate about lupins and their dynamic colors, but they do not grow in my garden. Do you have any tips for growing them successfully or are some species more accommodating than others? Lupin is not only the name of the famous "gentleman burglar" imagined by the French novelist Maurice Leblanc, it is the common name for plants of the genus Lupinus (Fabaceae, Linnaeus 1753), which was inspired by the Latin lupus, wolf, the seed being sometimes called "wolf bean" because of its bitterness and potential toxicity on cattle, sheep and horses. In gardens, hybrids of Lupinus polyphyllus are grown, originally from North America and commonly called: garden lupine but also large lupine, blue-podded lupine, large-leaved lupine, polyphyllous lupine and perennial lupine. Today, there are hundreds of cultivars of all colors. Garden lupine is a perennial herbaceous plant forming a tuft of large stems 60 cm to 1.5 m high. The semi-evergreen leaves are palmate, composed of 9 to 17 narrow lanceolate leaflets. The petiole is at least twice as long as the leaflets. In June, the flowers, small butterfly-like flowers (1 to 1.5 cm) gathered in a large spike, are most often blue to purple in wild plants, but they develop in a very rich palette of colors in cultivars. Lupin flowers are mainly visited by bumblebees. Garden lupins are perfectly hardy plants that can withstand frosts of -25°C. However, they do not thrive in rich, heavy soils because contact of the roots with manure or rich organic matter leads to the development of pathogenic fungi that cause them to rot. Thanks to their symbiotic relationship with bacteria that allow them to use nitrogen from the air to feed themselves, lupins grow well in sandy, humus-rich soils that are neutral to slightly acidic. This property is also used to use blue lupin (Lupinus angustifolius) as a green manure. Plant them in full sun for optimal flowering. Young lupins are very sensitive to the appetite of slugs. Lupinus arboreus, the shrubby lupin, is native to California. It forms a bush 1 to 2 m high, hardy to -10°C and has a lifespan of around 7 years. Carried by silky shoots, the evergreen or semi-evergreen, palmate leaves are composed of 5 to 12 leaflets covered sparsely with fine, silky hairs on the reverse side. In May-June, the tree lupine blooms numerous 30 cm long clusters of fragrant, soft yellow flowers resembling peas. 'Mauve Queen', has lilac flowers. 'Snow Queen', white flowers A false lupine, commonly called indigo lupine, is Baptisia australis, a perennial native to North America that forms a bush 1 to 1.5 m high, whose leaves resemble those of lupins but with fewer leaflets as well as the light blue to purplish clusters, but with larger flowers and less densely packed on the rachis. It is just as hardy as garden lupins. Several species of annual lupins native to the Mediterranean basin are protein plants (protein-rich seeds) grown for human and animal consumption: Lupinus albus, the white lupin also called: Egyptian bean or Arabian lentil; Lupinus angustifolius the narrow-leaved lupin or blue lupin; Lupinus luteus the yellow lupin. In New Zealand, Lupinus polyphyllus is an invasive species because it covers large areas near roadsides, pastures and river beds, particularly in the Canterbury region. It is also considered in Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Argentina, the Czech Republic, Finland, Lithuania and Ukraine. In the language of flowers, lupin expresses: imagination, serenity, voracity, need for calm, "you bring peace to my soul" Thank you for following this daily program. We hope you enjoyed this short video interlude. The entire NewsJardinTV team wishes you a pleasant time with us and will see you tomorrow from 7 p.m. for a new show: "LE QUOTIDIEN DU JARDIN". It's on NewsJardinTV and nowhere else! In the next show we will answer the following question: Could you do a show on the common beech (Fagus sylvatica) and its cultivars which are very varied. This tree fascinates me because of the exceptional diversity it offers us.