When to sow lupins in Southend-on-Sea

Why these dates

Sow direct a fortnight before the last frost, or start indoors eight weeks earlier - the seed germinates much better if chipped or soaked overnight first. Plants flower in their second year and are usually past their best by their fourth, so sow a few every year. Cut the spent spikes to get a second flush.

Hardy to -30C. Slugs destroy the emerging spring crowns far more often than frost does, and a wet winter on clay rots the deep taproot.

Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Lupins are timed from 8 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 2 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Southend-on-Sea.

Southend-on-Sea sits in zone 9b, which is milder than this crop wants, and a winter that never really arrives is its own problem. The dates below still describe the right time of year; the open question is survival rather than timing.

Do not expect a crop in the first year. A plant set out now should give its first worthwhile pick around year 1, and will then produce every year after that, which is what makes the planting decision worth getting right the first time.

See every crop timed for Southend-on-Sea →