The lupine genus is vast, running to more than three hundred species, with the greatest diversity native to the western United States where they fill meadows and roadsides with their distinctive palmate foliage and upright flower spikes. For eastern gardens, the choices narrow considerably. Native species like L. perennis and L. diffusus grow in the coastal plain but are seldom stocked by nurseries. The Russell Hybrids, developed in England in the early twentieth century, bring the broadest color range but perform best in cooler mountain gardens and are best treated as annuals in zones 7 and 8.

Lupines fix nitrogen through root associations with soil bacteria, meaning they improve the ground they occupy and tolerate nutrient-poor conditions that would defeat most flowering perennials. Seeds sown in fall give them the cold stratification they prefer, and the germination that follows in spring produces plants that settle in more reliably than spring-sown transplants. The hummingbirds they attract make even the shortest-lived plants worthwhile.