Following a number of years of negotiations, we are grateful to the Royal Horticultural Society for undertaking to conduct a trial of a range (23 in total) of the big perennial blue poppies 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 and has been set up at Harlow Carr. To allow comparisons to be made in a range of different growing conditions, four "demonstration beds" have also been set up: two at other RHS gardens (Wisley and Rosemoor), one at Holehird Gardens, Windermere, Cumbria and one at a private garden (The Linns) in central Scotland. At present the only big perennial blue poppy hybrid with an AGM is M. 'Slieve Donard'. The species M. baileyi also has the award. Potted up plants were distributed to the trial gardens for planting out into the trial beds in the autumn of 2009.

Progress of the trial over time will be given in pictures on this page and in table form for 2010 and 2011 as reported by the assessment committee. There will also be reports on the "demonstration beds", as they become available. Reports and photographs from Holehird Gardens are available here.

The following Meconopsis cultivars are being trialled (Click on name for photographs taken at Harlow Carr)

1.  'Slieve Donard'
6.  'Mrs Jebb'
11. 'Inverewe'
16. 'Susan's Reward'
21. 'Louise'

2.  'Bobby Masterton'
7.  'Crewdson Hybrid'
12. 'Marit'
17. 'Barney's Blue'
22. grandis (ES104)

3.  'Bryan Conway'
8.  'Crarae'
13. 'Huntfield'
18. 'Ascreavie'
23. grandis (PSW)

4.  'P.C. Abildgaard'
9.  'Willie Duncan'
14. 'Jimmy Bayne'
19. 'Lingholm'

5.  'Stewart Annand'
10. 'Keillour'
15. 'Dalemain'
20. 'Mop-head'

Harlow Carr First report - summer 2010

An assessment committee met at the Trial beds on 19 June 2010. Ian Christie reported that the area where the Meconopsis are planted is a very open, exposed site on an undulating mound that appears to be an old rock garden. It is near the stream, with large trees on one side about 10 metres away, and surrounded, nearer to, with established shrubs. The ground has been cleared of an infestation of mare's tail. It is a clay-based soil, improved with compost. Once planted, a mulch of strulch (a fairly new mulch material made from wheat straw) was placed around the plants.

Second report - summer 2011

The RHS assessment committee met twice at the trial bed at Harlow Carr (17 May and 2 June). On the second occasion members also visited the duplicate collections at Holehird in Windermere and in Scotland. The season was an exceptionally early one in 2011 and the big blue poppies flowered everywhere up to a month earlier than usual. The committee also visited the other replicate plantings - at their gardens at Wisley and at Rosemoor. Not surprisingly, overall, the plants were doing better in the north of Britain than further south. It was felt that the trial at Harlow Carr has got off to a good start, with not many losses and many plants performing very well.

We would like to express our gratitude to Elizabeth Balmforth, Curator at Harlow Carr Garden and to Alison Goding, Garden Manager, for hosting the trial. The photographs on this page were taken by Ian Christie. A set of pictures of the same range of plants in the "demonstration bed" at Holehird and taken by Pat Murphy and Alan Oatway is available here.

1. M. 'Slieve Donard'

2. M. 'Bobby Masterton'

3. M. 'Bryan Conway'

4. M. 'P.C. Abildgaard'

5. M. 'Stewart Annand'

6. M. 'Mrs Jebb'

7. M. 'Crewdson Hybrid'

8. M. 'Crarae'

9. M. 'Willie Duncan'

10. M. 'Keillour'

11. M. 'Inverewe'

12. M. 'Marit'

13. M. 'Huntfield'

14. M. 'Jimmy Bayne'

15. M. 'Dalemain'

16. M. 'Susan's Reward'

17. M. 'Barney's Blue'

18. M. 'Ascreavie'

19. M. 'Lingholm'

20. M. 'Mop-head'

21. M. 'Louise'

22. M. grandis (ES104)

23. M. grandis (PSW)