Meconopsis 2019

[Maggi Young]

 See this thread : http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=16980.0  for  details of some talks - often featuring Meconopsis, from Dr Alan Elliott   

[Leena]

Since nothing much is growing yet here, I have still been going through my photos from last summer. 
I have grown this early Meconopsis from seeds 2016 and it flowered for the first time last summer. My pots got mixed up and it is either 'Lingholm' or 'Glacier Blue', I sowed both seeds from seed ex seeds that year. It flowers the same time as my older 'Lingholm', so maybe that's what it is (though the leaves are a bit different, and also flowers bigger), but I wonder how 'Glacier Blue' differs from 'Lingholm'? Does anyone know?
I really liked this plant, and I hope it survives winter and is perennial. When the flowers opened there was a lot of purple in them but as they got older the flowers became more blue.
Fourth and last picture are of it's leaves.

[Leena]

Some more pictures of it.
It grew taller during flowering, and finally the seeds pods were 1,5m high, or more. It is a really big clump.
In the first pictures there are M baileyi starting to flower in the background, and the last picture is of them a bit later.

[Margaret Thorne]

Leena - You certainly had some lovely Meconopsis plants flowering in your garden last summer, but identifying precisely what they are is quite tricky.
“Glacier Blue” is not on the list of recognised cultivar names and if it was, it would be unlikely to come true from seed. But the RHS gives it as a name for a selection of Meconopsis baileyi, in which case the leaves of your plants would be cordate (heart-shaped) which they are not.
“Lingholm” does come more or less true from seed but is quite variable. However it usually has four petals and your plants are interesting in that most of them have six which is more typical of Meconopsis grandis. The leaves and seed capsules certainly bear more resemblance to “Lingholm” than they do to Meconopsis baileyi.
The flower colour of Meconopsis both in the wild and in cultivation often seems to be more purple to start with and developing into a better blue later. This may be caused by lower temperatures earlier in the season or it may just be that the blue develops as they mature.

[Leena]

Thank you Margaret. Your answer was really helpful!
I have book Meconopsis for gardeners, and there are only recognised cultivars and so nothing of "Glacier Blue". It is good to know that it is more M.baileyi -like.

My big plant must have come from 'Lingholm' seeds from SRGC seed ex. It was really nice last summer. I have M.grandis grown also from seeds, but it grows in a different bed and I don't have good pictures of it. I must compare them next summer.
I have fallen in love with these big blue poppies! They seem to grow well in my garden, and give so nice blue flowers in semi-shade part of the garden for the whole June.