Struggling with Lupine — would appreciate advice

I want to be honest: I'm not getting great results with Lupine and I'm not entirely sure why. poor germination in compacted or clay soils has been a recurring problem despite my attempts to address it. I've been focusing on sowing directly into poor soil as rich soil encourages weeds based on everything I've read.

self-seeding and naturalising without annual replanting is there in glimpses, which tells me the plant has potential in my conditions. I have it in a wildflower meadow replacing lawn areas which might not be ideal. peak flowering from early to midsummer showed some improvement. Two stars for now — not the plant's fault, but not a success yet. I'll update if things improve.