Heres a few question to clarify, so someone can answer:
Did you sow the seed outdoors or indoors?
When you say you transplanted them, do you mean outdoors?
Next, approx what month did you transplant them.
Once you have Lupins, you'll always have Lupins, Mike, at least in the UK!
Mine pop up in different places, so in my book, its best to sow them directly outside. Their leaves are easily recognised, so easy to tell weedlings from seedlings.
Off the top of my head, I think they have a long tap root, and plants like that dont like the tap root broken in transplant operations.