Meconopsis 'Gunvor'

[arisaema]

Anyone know the parentage of this short hybrid? I'm assuming it's 'Lingholm' crossed with something?

[arisaema]

No one? It looks like a cross of 'Lingholm' x quintuplinervia, perhaps? It's shorter than M. quintuplinervia, with scapose, 'Lingholm'-blue flowers.

[Maggi Young]

Since the name is Norwegian, I think your best bet is info from Norwegian sites.... I can't say I've ever seen it...

[arisaema]

I've tried in Norway, but no one seems to know much about it, unfortunately... It's probably a chance seedling, I figured someone might be able to make an educated guess if they grew it.

[Maggi Young]

How strange.... is it the name of a place or a person, perhaps a grower, can you guess?

[johnw]

According to Finn Haugli in his last talk here  and from his slide list  #110.   =M. ‘Gunvor’ (simplicifolia x betonicifolia)

He grows "Gunvor" if my memory serves me correctly but I'll have to grow through my slides of his garden. (In light of my recent canadense / michiganense mix-up it might be best to check with Finn.)  

johnw

[arisaema]

Thanks, John, good to know the parentage! Gunvor is a female name, possibly the name of whomever introduced it?

[Knud]

Good evening,
I have been surfing old Forum posts some evenings, and Wow, what a repository of beautiful pictures, good stories, and useful advice ,- valid long after the various threads have run out. Today I came across an old friend, Meconopsis 'Gunvor', so I will ignore the kind warning that "this topic has not been posted for at least 120 days" and make a fresh posting to complete the story, as it were.

John correctly identified M. 'Gunvor' as a hybrid between M. simplicifolia and M. betonicifolia, and yes Arisaema, Gunvor is indeed the lady who pollinated a simplicifolia with pollen from a betonicifolia. This she did about 25 years ago, and the original plant is still growing in Gunvor's and Jostein's beautiful garden just to the east of Oslo. I have included a picture I took in their garden some years ago, showing from right Jostein, Gunvor, and Barbara. For about 15 years from the early 90's Gunvor and Jostein ran a lovely little nursery, Fjellhagen (The Mountain Garden), which furnished many a garden all over Norway, either directly, spade in hand from their "acre", or via post, with rare and unusual plants.

We are lucky enough to have many of their plants in our garden, one of them being M. 'Gunvor'. I have included one of Jostein's pictures of M. 'Gunvor' in their garden, and it is not the dominating group Mec.'s in the picture you should focus on, but the left-most three flowers that are slightly richer blue. M. 'Gunvor' has a single flower per stem that is about 50-60 cm (just under 2 feet) tall. The dominating group in the picture is not "irrelevant", they are seedlings of M. 'Gunvor'. Our M. 'Gunvor' set plenty of seeds, but in the ten or so years we had it, we only ever found two seedlings, similar in the flower to the ones in the picture. They typically have a "bunch" of flowers up on the stalk.

I hope this may have tied up one loose thread....or started it rolling again?

Knud

[Martin Baxendale]

How strange.... is it the name of a place or a person, perhaps a grower, can you guess?

I can't help but keep reading it as a mis-spelling of Meconopsis 'Guvnor'.

[Martin Baxendale]

So that would make it a cultivar raised in Saff Lundun.

[Knud]

Hello,
It seems this thread has two ends, - like most, I guess. Thank you, Martin, for your input. I am quite certain that M. 'Gunvor' is not a misspelling, and its origin as I described in my last posting. It's an interesting coincidence.

Knud