Is Lupine deer resistant?

Fixes its own nitrogen and resents rich soil and lime, so grow it lean and slightly acid. Short-lived, three years or so, and it dislikes being moved once the taproot is down. Aphids can cover the spikes overnight. Invasive in parts of the northeast and the Pacific Northwest where it displaces native lupines.

Do deer eat lupine?

Seldom. Rutgers rates the genus Seldom Severely Damaged, B, and NC State lists deer and rabbits among what it resists. The alkaloids are the reason: NC State names lupinine, anagyrine and sparteine among them and rates the severity Low, "toxic only if large quantities eaten," with the seeds the concern. Under pressure the flower spikes are taken as they rise, since the spike is the soft part, and the leaf is left.

Where it grows

NC State: zones 4a to 9b, 3 to 4 feet, full sun or partial shade, flowering spring into summer. Lean, slightly acid, sharply drained soil, and no moving once the taproot is down. The garden hybrids are short-lived, three years or so, and the aphids that cover a spike overnight are the damage most gardens actually see.

Protecting lupine

Where spikes are being taken, one application of the 20 percent egg spray Colorado State rates High at bud stage covers the four weeks of bloom. Nothing else is usually needed.

If it is browsed

A browsed spike is gone for the year and the plant sends side spikes, smaller. The plant itself regrows from the crown, and a lupine that is allowed to seed replaces itself, which matters for a perennial that was going to die at three anyway. In the Northeast and the Pacific Northwest, where the garden lupine escapes and displaces the native species, letting it seed is the wrong answer.