Lupins were the must have plant from this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, with just about every colour covered across the show gardens. One of my favourites is the deep velvety purple and red of Lupinus ‘Masterpiece’, I love seeing it in the middle of a border (it grows to around 75cm in height). Even better is when it is softened to accentuate its spires, with the dark feathery leaves of Foeniculum vulgare ‘Giant Bronze’ and grasses, like the native Deschampsia cespitosa or surrounded by luscious green foliage to highlight the deep colour. Along with complementary plants from the globes of paler purple alliums, the deep violet blue of Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’ poking out at the front of the border with a few aquilegias dotted around, the deep red of Aquilegia vulgaris var. stellata ‘Ruby Port’ or ‘Black Barlow’.

Lupinus ‘Masterpiece’ with salvias, aquilegias, alliums and angelica

The favourite of the deep purple of ‘Masterpiece’ is closely followed by the blues, from using the smaller blue of ‘Gallery Blue’ in the middle or front of a border as fillers or the taller blue and white spires of ‘The Governor’ to draw the eye up towards the back of the border.  I’ve recently been drawn to the more unusual ‘Blue Javelin’, its amazingly vibrant blue flowers with hints of violet and deep red with white tips, not only are the colours stunning but it is also scented. The blue of the lupins are really set off when combining them with salvias, geraniums and a few umbels, the dark stemmed Anthriscus sylvestris ‘Ravenswing’ or Angelica archangelica. Equally I love the using lupins with a lighter palette with the green stems of Anthriscus sylvestris and the pale blue Iris siberica ‘Perry’s Blue’. Or mixing it up with the pale yellows of Lupinus ‘Chandelier’ or ‘Gallery Yellow’, looking like rays of sunshine even when the rain is dribbling down the windows. Keeping the yellow theme going adding further elements, particularly the zingy acid yellows of euphorbias, the willowy long flowering Euphorbia ceratocarpa or the smaller Euphorbia epithymoides with foliage that turns bronze in autumn lights up the space.

Blue lupin planting scheme

For a softer look, I love overflowing herbaceous borders overflowing with mounds of geraniums and punctuated with spires. Mixing up pink lupins, the soft pale pink of ‘Blossom’ or the darker ‘The Pages’ with lilacs, wallflowers (Erysimum ‘Bowle’s Mauve’) and Geranium x magnificum with a backdrop of green foliage to help the flowers to stand out. I always want some scent in a border, plants that you can brush past along a path or inhale around a seating area, something like phlox, the white phlox of Phlox paniculata ‘David’ or lilac of Phlox divarticata ‘Clouds of Perfume’.

Herbaceous borders with pink lupins