Meconopsis for first-time growers

Not everyone wishes to study Meconopsis in depth or to grow a wide range of forms. This section is intended as a short introduction to those most readily available as plants in (British) garden centres and nurseries or as seed from seed catalogues. Further information may be obtained on other pages. In particular, see Cultivation, Propagation for raising from seed and cultivation in the garden.

Meconopsis have the reputation for being not the easiest of plants to grow. In large measure this is true for gardeners who live in climates less than ideal for these plants. Even in optimum climates their requirements need to be understood for good results. They thrive best where it is cool and moist, such as in Scotland, Ireland, coastal British Columbia, Alaska and the north of Norway, but success can be achieved in warmer and drier climates. With the newcomer to Meconopsis in mind, it is convenient to divide the most commonly available and suitable plants into the following categories:

1. Big perennial blue poppies,
   
   
2. Monocarpic (non-perennial) forms.
   
   
3. Meconopsis cambrica.

1. Big perennial blue poppies
The popular name "Himalayan blue poppies" is usually applied to Meconopsis which grow quite tall (1-1.5m, 3-5ft) and most have beautiful blue flowers. Given suitable conditions and care in cultivation, they should persist and flower year after year. However, in less than ideal conditions, they may prove to be short-lived perennials or in the case of the fertile forms, even monocarpic (i.e. flower and set seed only once before dying).
For the first-time grower it is perhaps helpful to sub-divide the most suitable and readily available plants into the categories indicated below:

The species M. betonicifolia also previously known as M baileyi, is the most frequently grown and is probably the easiest and the one to recommend for warmer and drier climates. The various big blue poppies are often confused, one with another. M. betonicifolia can be recognised by the smaller flowers than in hybrids (see below), a leaf-blade with a heart-shaped base, and barrel-shaped seed-capsules with a short style. The capsules are clothed with short, dense bristles, and the seeds are almost spherical about 1mm in diameter. The seeds may be collected, cleaned and stored dry, in paper envelopes, in a closed plastic box in a domestic fridge ready for sowing at the beginning of the following year.
M. betonicifolia is readily available from garden centres and specialist nurseries. The shapes of the flowers and their shades of blue can be quite variable (see pictures). There is also a white form, M. betonicifolia 'Alba' and a deep pink-purple form M. betonicifolia 'Hensol Violet' .

Fertile hybrids: M. 'Lingholm' (Fertile Blue Group) is a fertile form which is believed to have originated several decades ago from a sterile hybrid. It is now probably the second most frequently sold form of Meconopsis. It is thought likely that, as a chance event, there was a doubling of the chromosomes in a sterile parent and that this restored its fertility thus enabling it to produce viable seeds. Abundant seed develops in the capsules and as a result many plants are now raised annually. There is at present just this one named fertile cultivar. However, it was, and still is, to be found under a variety of erroneous names, including the cultivar name M. sheldonii (sterile) and the species name, M. grandis.
M. 'Lingholm' flowers are sky-blue but larger than in similar M. betonicifolia. Various other features also help to distinguish the two. In M. 'Lingholm', the bases of the leaf-blades gradually taper into the leaf-stalks and the leaves (especially when young) are clothed with long hairs usually with white tips. Seed-capsules are long, elliptical with prominent, long bristles. Viable seeds are plump, kidney-shaped and large (1 x 2mm), If the seeds are only small and flattish, they have not developed properly and will not be viable. This may happen if environmental conditions are unfavourable. Good seed can be harvested, stored and sown as already mentioned for M. betonicifolia and described under Cultivation, Propagation.

Sterile hybrids These hybrids are many decades old and have thus stood the test of time. Because they are sterile, the only way to propagate them is by division. Therefore if you can obtain a well-established plant, you can probably be more confident that it will prove to be truly perennial as compared with recently seed-raised plants such as M. betonicifolla and M. 'Lingholm'. You can also expect to pay a higher price because fewer are available. (Propagation by division produces far fewer plants than growing from seed.) Most hybrids have apparently cropped up in gardens as a result of accidental cross-pollination between species by bees and other insects. The exact parentage is therefore usually uncertain but quite a few different hybrids have been identified. To simplify identification and naming, they have been split into two Groups, namely George Sherriff Group and Infertile Blue Group, plus a few other exceptionally distinctive cultivars. To be within a Group, cultivars must have certain defined similarities. George Sherriff Group comprises a number of sterile clonal cultivars previously lumped together under the invalid name M grandis GS600.

Whilst some cultivars within each Group are very similar to one another, others are markedly different and may have a variety of flowering times. Thus, a diverse collection of blue Meconopsis with a lengthened flowering period can be selected for the garden. The most likely sources for purchase are specialist nurseries. Look out for names such as M 'Slieve Donard', M. 'Jimmy Bayne', M. 'Huntfield', M 'Ascreavie', M. 'Crewdson Hybrid', M. 'Mrs Jebb' etc.
Awards, indicating merit, were awarded to a number of the cultivars at a meeting of the Joint Rock Garden Plant Committee (JRGPC) of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) specially convened for this purpose in June 2005. These awards are indicated in the Table of Approved Names. However, it is anticipated that some of these awards will be upgraded in future and also that awards will be made to a number of the other cultivars.

See also Genus page Big perennial blue poppies , Plant portraits and supplementary Table of Approved Names for further information.

2. Monocarpic (non-perennnial) forms
There is a second group of Meconopsis which is quite different in habit and appearance from the big perennial blue poppies and which are frequently available from garden centres and nurseries. The most important difference is that they are monocarpic. This means that the plants behave like annuals and die after flowering and setting seed, that is they are not perennial. Unlike annuals which go through the whole life-cycle in one year or less, the process of growing to maturity and flowering takes several years. Some of the monocarpic Meconopsis are attractive evergreens.

Plants likely to be encountered in garden centres are M. napaulensis hybrids and M. paniculata (the latter also often hybridised). The lovely rosettes of leaves give pleasure during their several years of growing, getting larger year by year. This applies especially during the bleak months of winter. The leaves may have variously dissected edges and may be green, silvery green or golden. The time will come, one early summer, after two, three or four years and when sufficiently large, for a stout flowering stem (up to 2-3m tall) to arise from the rosette of evergreen leaves and bear a spire of yellow, red, pink or white flowers. The flowering period extends over more than a month, during which the first flowers fade and attractive seed-capsules become prominent in their place. Abundant fertile seed develops within the capsules as they mature. After seed-setting the plant dies.

Some monocarpic Meconopsis are deciduous and the leaves die down in autumn and all that can be seen is an inconspicuous resting bud at soil level, e.g. M. pseudointegrifolia and M. prattii. There are also other evergreen monocarpic Meconopsis, e.g. M. superba, but these are not so commonly available. Further details can be found on the Plant Portraits and Genus (Monocarpic or perennial) pages.

3. Meconopsis cambrica, the Welsh Poppy
This is an undemanding perennial in many climates and is particularly valued by those gardening where other Meconopsis are less easy to please. It can be regarded as a "stand-alone" plant. It is the only one that comes from western Europe and not from the Himalayas or the mountains of western China or Tibet. The botanists say that M. cambrica is not really a Meconopsis, although it was the first to be described and named. It is likely that there will be a name change at some time in the future.

Unlike many other Meconopsis it will grow in both fairly dry and in damp conditions. In a climate good for Meconopsis it often comes to be regarded as a bit weedy as it self-sows rather too readily and if an individual gets established in the middle of another perennial or shrub, it can be difficult to remove because of its stout, long root. In the wild, the flower is single and yellow. Other colour forms have been selected in gardens, e.g. orange and red singles (the latter is the cultivar 'Frances Perry') and as attractive doubles (yellow, orange and red – the latter has been named M. cambrica 'Muriel Brown'). Particularly, if you think you will not be able to succeed with other Meconopsis, then M. cambrica is to be recommended.