Lupinus Gallery Bicolour yellow and blue

Lupinus polyphyllus Gallery® Bicolour yellow and blue is a compact perennial lupin with bicoloured blue and yellow flower spikes, ideal for adding structure to borders and containers. This selection from the Gallery® series is raised from seed, but flowers in the first year. The plant flowers from May to August, attracting bees and other pollinators. This very hardy selection also has good disease resistance. It will thrive in sun or partial shade, in moist, neutral to acid soil.

Botanically, Lupinus polyphyllus, the many‑leaflet lupin, belongs to the Fabaceae family. The genus Lupinus genus is widely distributed in the Americas and around the Mediterranean. The species L. polyphyllus is native to the western part of North America; it has served as the basis for countless ornamental hybrids, notably the famous Russell lupins.
The Gallery® series, to which Gallery® Bicolour yellow and blue belongs, is an improvement on these garden lupins: they are dwarf or semi‑dwarf varieties, very uniform, floriferous, suitable for pot cultivation and capable of flowering from the first year. This cultivar was selected by the French seed company HM. Clause and registered as a novelty approved for Fleuroselect trials. It is a herbaceous perennial, which disappears in winter to regrow from its crown each spring; its growth is fairly rapid, reaching 50 cm tall and wide. The plant forms a dense clump. The sturdy, erect flower stems bear quite glaucous green, palmate leaves, composed of narrow leaflets. The inflorescences are tall, dense vertical clusters, filled with numerous small peae-like flowers. In Gallery® Bicolour yellow and blue, the petals are mauve blue and butter yellow. The flowering extends from May to August if faded spikes are removed. The fruits are elongated, slightly hairy, 2.5 to 4 cm long pods containing several spotted seeds typical of lupin. The root system is dominated by a deep taproot, capable of reaching several tens of centimetres deep. It has with nodes that house nitrogen‑fixing bacteria, improving soil fertility around the plant. Hardy down to –20 °C or less, this lupin doesn't like poorly drained soils.

Perfect in poor but non‑calcareous soils, Gallery® perennial lupins self‑seed readily in gardens that suit them, producing a profusion of often fragrant spikes in rainbow colours. In the garden, the variety Gallery® Bicolor yellow and blue can be used in repeated clumps to create rhythm in a border, in groups of three to five plants in the middle of a flowerbed or in front of small shrubs. It can be combined with the varieties Gallery White and Gallery Pink interplanting bulbs of Ornamental Garlic 'Purple Sensation' between the clumps. You can also plant it in front of white landscape roses. In a natural garden, it will fit well among not very tall grasses such as Chinese fountain grasses.

Lupinus polyphyllus was introduced to Europe in the 19th century as an ornamental plant and has become naturalised in many regions, to the point of forming vast colourful colonies along roads and rivers in some areas, notably in northern Europe and Patagonia.