In the longstanding battle between L.A. city steet maintenance crews and nature, the violet-blue lupines are reported to be holding their own this week. According to one reliable person who posted on the Echo-Elysian list serve:

Every year, Street Maintenance does its best to extirpate the Lupines that volunteer on the Glendale bridge over the LA River, and every year, the Lupines come back. Go see them--they are just starting to be in full bloom.

I have tried to grow my own lupines, with seeds I bought at the Theodore Payne Foundation, but they don't seem to like my y soil, or the way I water, or the company of the non-native plants plants in the yard, or something. Only one of them ever sprouted and made to it flower.

Photo: Unembattled lupines in a country field. Geo-Images, Berkeley, CA.