05/20/2026
What's Growing Wednesday? 🌱
Last week, we introduced WGW and started out by sharing our sweet pea progress. This week, we want to talk about sweet peas cousin, Lupines!
The first three images are Lupine babies growing right here at Ingersoll Public Library - Inola - in the community garden! The fourth photo is an example of the fully grown flower, for context. ⬇️
Each flower spike is made up of many small pea-like blooms, which makes sense considering lupines belong to the legume family!
Lupines are nitrogen fixers, which means they actually improve soil health by pulling nitrogen from the air and converting it into nutrients plants can use. Because of this, they're often found growing in poor or sandy soils where other plants struggle.
Lupines are also important for wildlife. They attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Additionally, some native butterflies rely on lupines as a host plant for their caterpillars. 🐛
They're widely used in gardens not just for beauty, but also for their ability to improve soil and support pollinators, making them both decorative and ecologically useful!
In ecosystems, diversity helps ensure that if conditions change (drought, pests, temperature shifts) something is more likely to survive and keep the system going. If every plant were identical, one threat could wipe everything out. Diversity spreads out risk and creates stability.
So, just like a healthy meadow isn't made of identical flowers, a strong community isn't built from identical people. It's built from differences that work together, each one contributing something the others don't have. 🤗
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