lupine envy...

ok, so today on the way home from work, i espied in a yard 3 huge lupines......enormous lupines......such as they have in catalog pictures.....certainly not in real life......lupines catch my eye because (1) they remid me of a marvelous day in the west when we were hiking and came across lovely low-growing lupines in full bloom....and (2) because i cannot seem to grow them at all....... no matter if it is from seed, or from nursery plants...they die in my care as if they know that they are misplaced and doomed from the beginning.......plants like azalias.......i understand my inability to grow them.......we live on limestone.....quite close to limestone, in fact......so acid-loving plants like azalia, rhodedendrons, blueberries, dogwoods......might as well throw them over the cliff for all that they will live in our yard.......so what is the deal with lupines.......