Meconopsis has been a popular genus with gardeners for more than a century, ever since its introduction into western gardens from the Far East. But in recent years, problems of identification and naming have arisen due to hybridisation amongst the various species growing close together in gardens. The Meconopsis Group was founded in 1998 to try to resolve the confusion. This particularly applied to the popularly styled "Himalayan blue poppies". So the initial remit was to clarify the identities and nomenclature of the many forms of big perennial blue poppies found in cultivation.

Membership
This currently stands at over 150 with most from the British Isles, but also from Europe and as far away as Canada, Japan and Australia. Membership is open to anyone with an interest in Meconopsis. Study meetings are held twice a year at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Naming recommendations made by the identification assessment committee are confirmed by the members at these meetings. All members of the group receive full reports of the meetings which are also made available to them online in the restricted members' area. They may also participate in our annual seed exchange and attend occasional meetings in gardens noted for their Meconopsis.

Adoption of new classification
Christopher Grey-Wilson has recently (2009) proposed, in "The Alpine Gardener", the restoration of the name M. baileyi for the Tibetan blue poppy, native to SE Tibet and well known for decades as M. betonicifolia. For details including a full reference to the paper and a downloadable version, see MM. baileyi & betonicifolia reclassification. Other details are available in the entries in Plant Portraits for these species in the wild . This new classification has been adopted on this web-site.

Affiliations
The Meconopsis Group is affiliated to the Scottish Rock Garden Club and it enjoys the active support of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

Website
Except where otherwise attributed, the text on this site was written by Dr Evelyn Stevens, co-founder of The Meconopsis Group. She became a Meconopsis enthusiast when she was given a beautiful, but then unamed, big blue poppy cultivar in 1982. Details of how this led to the formation of the Group and how this website was initiated are given here.

Fact-sheets
We have prepared a number of fact-sheets on the more readily available cultivars, with one or two cultivars dealt with on each sheet. The sheets are in pdf format for viewing and printing and each comprises colour pictures, together with some background information and guidance on cultivation. We plan to add further fact-sheets as time permits. For a list with download links, please click here.

Help sought
To further our aims, we are always grateful for information, from as many sources as possible including both members and non-members, on any aspect of our subject of study (e.g. information on the existence of long-standing old clones, with or without purported names attached, historical information, species being grown, experiences on cultivation requirements etc).
Please email plantmatters@meconopsis.org .

Accuracy of pictures
For Meconopsis enthusiasts, the various forms of big perennial blue poppies are usually readily enough recognised when seen growing in the garden. But obtaining faithful photographic images is quite difficult. As a result, published pictures are often not very helpful or even misleading. With this in mind, every effort is made in this website to use only pictures which give true portrayals. However, it should be noted that the precise colours are not very stable in many of these flowers. Thus, variation in colour is a significant feature, and is discussed in some detail in a supplementary page Colour range within the Meconopsis genus.