Meconopsis from garden visit

[ChrisB]

Hi,  I went to visit a garden with our North Northumberland group last week.  This meconopsis was just wonderful.  Can't remember the species name, but I remember being told that mostly you get them with the label on the seed, but rarely do they come true to the species.  This one did.  Has distinct spots on the foliage.

[Maggi Young]

Vicious looking creature, isn't it, for one so small and blue!
M. horridula, I reckon, tho' one of the Mec bods will say more, I expect.

[Roma]

Definitely Mec. horridula group.  I think the one with spotty leaves is called Meconopsis rudis.

[Lesley Cox]

Extremely horrid - but wonderful. Horridula itself doesn't have the black spots, or mine doesn't anyway. It is monocarpic for me but seeds all right. The prickles are vicious and if you get one in your finger it can go septic and nasty, very quickly. Avoid them at all costs.

[ChrisB]

Roma, you hit the nail on the head, that's exactly the name we were told - M. rudis.  I knew it began with an r, but couldn't think of the name when I posted.  Thanks for that!  It really was a stunning plant.

[Paul T]

It is, isn't it.  Quite stunning.  I love the prickles, and of course the lovely blue Mec flowers.  Looks great.

[Paul E.]

There's a really good article in the Rock Garden from a couple of years back .. 'Meconopsis hybrids' by James Cobb. It would appear that no pure horridula-esque species remain completely pure. Though this one seems distinctively rudis indeed!

How is Mec cultivation out your part of the world Paul? From what I understand the horridua of hort. has been pursuaded into a good deal of toleratane to heat over all these years.

[Lesley Cox]

It certainly does well in New Zealand though our summers can't compare for heat with Paul's in Australia. But as a biennial, it's OK anyway. It's the perennials that have to survive through the later, hotter, drier part of summer that suffer.

[Paul T]

Never managed to successfully grow a blue mec here as yet Lesley, unfortunately.  Probably our summers.  I'll work it out one day how to do it.  Probably another that I need to grow from seed (although hopefully do better than your Mec grandis seed a few years ago which germinated and grew for a couple of weeks before dying  ).