Meconopsis now

[TC]

I was going to post some pictures of Meconopsis on the site when I got a message in red suggesting I should open a new thread, so, here goes.
 From baby-sitting duties in Edinburgh,we popped in to Dawyck on our way back.  They have two large beds of Meconopsis but the main flowering date is probably 10 days away.  However, we did manage to find two or three flowers that had just opened.  I think the raindrops add something to the pictures.

[Ian Minty]

Thanks for the pics TC.
Meconopsis are one of my favourite flowers.
Mine were budding up nicely last week and some were about a week away from opening when I had to go offshore for 3-4 weeks.
So I'm hoping for cooler weather at home so that there are some blooms left by the time that I get home.
Keep them coming.

[David Nicholson]

I sowed some Meconopsis 'Lingholme' seed that Stuart Pawley kindly sent me and noticed, whilst looking in my seed frame today, that I have had good germination. The challenge will be, in my dry Devon garden, to get them to planting out size and hopefully eventually to flower.

[TC]

My problem with meconopsis is twofold.  I can usually get good germination but it is the nursing of the small plants through the winter that is a big worry.  Only about 1% make it.  When they do flower, the wind usually shreds them.
I came back from a trip today and had a look at one of my two surviving plants.  This is hidden in the shelter of a fence and underneath a Loderi rhododendron. The top flower has gone and I have to perform a limbo dance to see the others !
The other plant - probably betonicifolia - has had a few leaves snapped off by the wind, but the flower stalk, with buds, is still intact. Meanwhile, my seedlings are like mustard and cress.  There's always next year.

[David Nicholson]

The gardener's prayer Tom, 'there's always next year'

[Maggi Young]

Here is the  stem of Mec. that Susan B. sent me, via Fermi, on Friday... it still looks good... who knew that meconopsis made a good cut flower?!!

[Lesley Cox]

I have a very large batch of `Lingholm' seedlings, the seed from the Logan Botanic Garden, so should be true. They germinated like the proverbial, and I potted up 80 into small planter bags. That was back in November. They are already dying down for the winter but have quite thick knobs at ground level of very dark brown fur and I think will come through the winter well, if I don't let them dry out (they're in my shady tunnel which in theory the rain gets through (knitted cloth) but the sheltering trees are so think now that it doesn't.)They should be ready to plant out in August just as they're coming into visible growth again.

Here, too dry while young is the main loss cause but when they're older the wind attacks as well. I find the plants can stand dry conditions well if they've had time to get their roots well down first. This applies to perennial forms of course, not the monocarpics which are going to die after flowering/seeding anyway.

[TC]

Some more Meconopsis in bulk

[Maggi Young]

Lovely, true blues, you have captured here, Tom.

[Lesley Cox]

Surely NOTHING is more glorious than Meconopsis "in bulk" as Tom puts it.The sky come down to earth.

[TC]

We popped into Branklyn after an expensive visit to Potfest at Perth on Friday.  Cindy has bought so many pots and ceramics over the years that we could open our own gallery.  I digress, after an initial downpour, we got round the garden in sunshine.  Although the rhododendrons were mainly over, other plants were coming through.  The show of Meconopsis was impressive, but, as usual I could not find many labels.  My favourite was meconopsis forrestii.  It looks sturdy enough to stand strong winds unlike its larger cousins.  Mec. cookei was a new one to me and looked like a crushed piece of silk on a stem.

[Ian Minty]

Thanks for posting again Tom, Irene was telling me on the phone that two of my mecs are looking really good at home last night and the rest are just coming along nicely and they should be flowering by the time that I get home. I'll post some pics as soon as I can once I get some shore leave.

[Lesley Cox]

Not sure that I like that version of Mec. x Cookei. I'm in favour of the gorgeous reds on the cover of the January Journal. The M. forrestii looks as if it may be related to M. horridula, from the little seen in the pic? In which case it would be quite sturdy but probably monocarpic. I don't know the name.

To me, and from way back, the name Branklyn is synonymous with meconopsis.

And Tom, to begin with, I almost thought you and Cindy had been to a sort of "love in" affair, with the green stuff a part of the festivities. Potfest indeed

[TC]

Lesley

Not sure that I like that version of Mec. x Cookei. I'm in favour of the gorgeous reds on the cover of the January Journal. The M. forrestii looks as if it may be related to M. horridula, from the little seen in the pic? In which case it would be quite sturdy but probably monocarpic. I don't know the name.

To me, and from way back, the name Branklyn is synonymous with meconopsis.

And Tom, to begin with, I almost thought you and Cindy had been to a sort of "love in" affair, with the green stuff a part of the festivities. Potfest indeed

The Mec. cookei looks better in real life.  In the sunshine it took on a metalic hue of bronze and pink.  I asked the gardener where she had got it from and she said it was fom her friend Evelyn.  It was not until later that I associated this with Evelyn Stevens of the Meconopsis group
I liked the forrestii because of the deep blue contrasting with the white stamens and the fact that it looked sturdy enough to survive in a windy situation for more than a few days without snapping off.
I'm afraid that after 43 years of marriage, love ins are a distant memory!  We were both folkies in the 1950's and 1960's and the thought of camping in a wet windy cold field for a concert appalls me.  However, last night there was a concert featuring Marti Pellow, Karen Matheson and Phil Cunningham in Ayr racecourse to celebrate the end of the Burns an' a' that festival   All we did was to open the window slightly and we could hear the concert from the comfort of our own house. Cindy and I must be some of the few who never tried the weed.  Probably because I could not stand smoking in any form.
However, hope springs eternal.  I have decided to take up the guitar again, so much so, that I am having one made to my specifications by a luthier in Glasgow from some choice wood I have been saving for 47 years.  It will probably end up as an heirloom for my grandchildren.

[Lesley Cox]

That sounds wonderful Tom. As a child I learned to play the violin on a very fine instument which my grandfather had made. Fortunately - for it - it went to a much better player than I was ever going to be. But now, I regret that I didn't carry on, with piano at least.