Next Meeting 3 March 2012
The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 10.00 – 15.30. All are welcome.

Report of meeting on 6 November 2011

The meeting started on a sad note, reporting the recent death of long-term member, Cameron Carmichael. George Watt gave a moving tribute to Cameron.

Once again, the meeting at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh was well supported with both long-standing and new members attending. There was the usual wide variety of topics including travel to see Meconopsis growing in the wild to practical aspects of cultivation and taxonomy. As usual, fuller reports will be available to members in the newsletter.

Jenny Wainwright-Klein, from the Munich Botanic Garden and Curator of the Schachen Alpine Garden in Bavaria spoke of how she successfully grows a wide variety of Meconopsis species using both the facilities provided by the Munich Botanic Garden and the growing conditions provided by the Schachen Alpine Garden (at 1850m). See Schachen Alpine Garden.

In the second of our new series on growing Meconopsis from seed, James Cobb spoke, amongst other topics, of the ease with which he grows M. punicea, including germination success with a procedure he has devised. The same technique applies to M. quintuplinervia.

David Rankin reported briefly on his recent field observations in Nepal on whether M. paniculata and true M. napaulensis can hybridise. He concludes that they do not, although they grow close to one another and flower at the same time.

Julia Corden's wide-ranging talk included the role of the Explorers, the Scottish Plant Hunters' Garden at Pitlochry. She spoke of how the garden grows the plants collected by the many great Scottish plant hunters of the past - and present. Of particular relevance for our meeting was the Himalayan area with thriving plantings of big blue poppies.

Tim Lever's talk "In search of the pink poppywort", was about an ambitious trek in 2008 to re-find pink-flowered Meconopsis sherriffii.. Tim showed superb pictures of the beautiful central Bhutanese scenery and many of the lovely plants - including M. sherriffii.

The last presentation "Lost and Found" was devoted almost exclusively to Meconopsis. It was the third instalment in their series "The Call of the Wild", recounting Margaret and David Thorne's mission to find as many Meconopsis species growing in the wild as possible. Very exciting was the finding of the extremely rare M. torquata, west of Lhasa in Tibet. Margaret expressed concern that climate change may lead to the extinction of this and other rare Meconopsis species.

Tribute to Cameron Carmichael who passed away on 7 October 2011

Cameron Carmichael was a founder member of The Meconopsis Group and a staunch supporter of its aims and work. Over many years Cameron bravely contended with much ill health despite which he continued his life-long passion for plants. He was widely recognised as a plantsman with a broad knowledge of horticulture and was very generous in passing on this knowledge in many areas. He  had a special liking for rhododendrons and trilliums which grew well in his  beautiful garden. As Co-ordinator for many years of the Plant Heritage (then called the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens) collections in Scotland, he worked hard to initiate the establishment of many National Collections. It was Cameron who suggested that the collection of "Meconopsis (large perennial species and hybrids)" in a private garden in central Scotland should be submitted for recognition as one of these. As a member of The Meconopsis Group committee, his input into our work was very valuable and we shall miss having the fruits of his knowledge and experience, over many years, relating to horticulture in Scotland. Cameron will be greatly missed by his many friends.

Trial of Perennial Blue Poppies for the Award of Garden Merit

Following a number of years of negotiations, we are pleased that the Royal Horticultural Society has undertaken to conduct a trial of a range (23 in total) of the big perennial blue Meconopsis cultivars to assess them for the Award of Garden Merit (AGM). This award, by an appropriate RHS committee, may be given to a plant after a period of trial. The purpose of the award is to help gardeners choose plants judged for their all-round garden value. The Meconopsis trial is to run from 2010 - 2013. The trial has been set up at Harlow Carr. Also, for comparisons to be made in a range of different growing conditions, two other RHS gardens (Wisley and Rosemoor), together with Holehird in Windermere and a private garden in central Scotland are growing the same range of cutivars. At present the only big blue perennial poppy hybrid with an AGM is M. 'Slieve Donard' (2009).
Reports with photographs of the trial at Harlow Carr and at the "demonstration beds" at Holehird are available here.

The Kath Dryden Award by the Alpine Garden Society
(This news item was added by PJT but the commendation below is as made by the Alpine Garden Society. I am sure all of the Group would wish to join me in offering congratulations to Evelyn.)

"This award recognises meritorious work and expertise in advancing our knowledge and understanding of the cultivation of a genus or group of alpine plants."

"Dr Evelyn Stevens - Meconopsis has been a prominent and important genus amongst members of the Alpine Garden Society for many years. Apart from the problems presented by tshe taxonomy of the species the large perennial blue poppies of gardens have taxed horticulturist for many years, certainly since the 1950s. Evelyn Stevens has taken a great interest in these plants over the past 30 years and has established the finest collection of them in her garden close to Dunblane in Scotland. To see them there in full flower in late May and early June is to wonder at their beauty and variety. It is one thing to gather together a collection of plants, another to make it a meaningful collection."

"Evelyn's collection is not only the finest and most comprehensive to be found anywhere in the world, but each entry is carefully recorded. Over the years she has scrupulously photographed, measured and recorded every important detail of more than 200 collections. Herbarium specimens have been prepared for each and the colour of the flowers noted and the differences in leaf development from early to late in the year, details that are vital for accurate determination. Little wonder then that hers is the National Collection. As a result of this work we now have a great deal of well-documented evidence on the Large Blue Perennial Poppies."

"In addition, Evelyn was instrumental in setting up the Meconopsis Group, a Group that looks at species and cultivars alike, both in the wild and in cultivation. Since its inauguration the Group has thrived and boasts a dynamic membership. Evelyn has written widely on the subject both for he Meconopsis Group and for various journals and magazines. As well as this she has been co-opted onto the RHS Trials Panel who are at present running a trial of these poppies at its Harlow Carr garden. There can be few people alive whose meticulous work and knowledge is more deserving of this award."

Report of meeting on 5 March 2011

This was our AGM, and the reports of our Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer and Web-site manager showed the Group to be in excellent shape. This was also indicated by another large and enthusiastic attendance with many long-term members, together with a number of new ones present. The good health of the Group was also indicated by the subjects covered at the meeting.

Two lovely new cultivars, recommended by the plant assessment committee after many years of trialing were approved by the Group for naming. These were M. 'Mildred', a fine selection from Fertile Blue Group and M. 'Strathspey' with many feature like true M. grandis.  M. 'Mildred' is vigorous, early-flowering and with flowers of a shade of blue that always elicits excited comments of admiration. It does set seed, but the name only applies to this clone and any seedlings are to be labelled "ex. M. 'Mildred' ".   M. 'Strathspey' is another early-flowering cultivar. It was brought to our attention by James Gauld, purchased by him many years ago from Inshriach as M. grandis, but as it is completely sterile it has been given the cultivar name just mentioned.

M. 'Mildred'

Concerning Meconopsis species in the wild, Paul Egan, a young researcher with a great interest in Meconopsis, has just published details of two new species endemic to central Nepal, and he gave an excellent talk about his work. His paper was published in the journal Phototaxa available from Magnolia Press (www.mapress.com). A freely available pdf version of the paper may be downloaded here.

On the practical front, Geoff Hill gave the first in a series of talks on members' experiences on cultivating Meconopsis, with a special emphasis on growing the species from seed. In this talk Geoff talked mainly about his careful researches on the "germinability" of the seed of M. punicea. Members are invited to offer to give short talks at future meetings. Please do come forward and contact our Secretary, Norma, or other members of the committee with offers.

Then in a quite different area, between them, Janet Watson and Sharon Bradley intrigued members by a fascinating talk on the art of botanical illustration. Both recounted how they were introduced to Meconopsis. They explained in some detail the techniques involved in this art that requires so much research, patience, powers of observation and meticulous attention to detail. Producing one picture can take as much as 65 hours of work and often requires a small paintbrush with only 5 tiny hairs in it! They illustrated their talk with their lovely representations of Meconopsis, both the "big blues" (Janet) and species (Sharon).

Fourth International Perennial Plant Conference, 11-13 February 2011
Evelyn Stevens presented a talk on "Meconopsis in the wild and in cultivation" at the Fourth International Perennial Plant Conference at Grunberg, Germany in February 2010. (Details and photographs available at isu-perennials.org.) The slides used in Evelyn's presentation may be downloaded here as a pdf file. With his permission, some of Toshida Yoshida’s photographs of species growing in the wild were used .  (PJT)

Meconopsis-rich Gardens
For a directory of gardens in which a variety of Meconopsis are growing, please consult the supplementary page Meconopsis-rich Gardens. Most of these gardens are open to the public and two are in Canada.