Tall planta, Lupine etc

[FineBerol]

I am finding my long flowered plants (verbascum., lupins) don't seem to flower for very long. The bottom of the flower will practically be turning to seed just as the top has blossomed. (Fox gloves and Delphs are better but still not great)

What do you think is going wrong?

Also with Lupins I deadheaded them but the new flowers that came through... the branches were too weak to support the slightest bit of wind and they snapped :(

When i deadheaded them i cut down to the next leaf node where new blooms were starting to appear but should I have really cut much further down instead?

I'm sick of putting effort in and things only looking good for a few weeks 😭

Flowers with tall spikes just grow like that. The whole spike doesn't flower at once, it starts at the bottom and works its way up, so the flowers at the bottom are pollinated and finish first. It's nature.

If you have things flopping over then it could be that either the stems aren't getting enough sun, or they need some sort of support structure to prevent it.

When I chop back my lupins after the first flush, I do cut them back pretty hard, maybe to about a foot off the ground. They seem to be able to hold the weight of the second flush of flowers more easily.

I think that’s just what they do.
I have some purple toadflax which is tall but seems to have a nice long flowering season.

Aster; ox-eye daisy; echinops; geranium phaeum; Japanese anemone all last a good few weeks'.

There are varieties of tall Campanula, sometimes called Canterbury Bells. They send up multiple strong flowering spikes for a long time.
Knautia and larkspur are also good, tall, long flowering plants.