Elusive Blue Poppy
I took the grands to volunteer training at our Public Library, got a new seed packets at the Seed Library (sock my granddaughter keeps tend) and checked out a couple of books.
In an essay on the lovely blue Poppy, Meconopsis betonicifolia in Jamaica Kincaid's My Favorite Plant, gardener Wayne Winterrowd writes of being given a start on M betonicifolia by a very good gardener, who told him, "Divide it into single crowns, with a bit of root when you get home. Plant then firmly just at the crown, like strawberries, in rich decayed leaf mold. Bright dappled light. Maybe some morning sun. But pinch out the first flower bud. You most pick our the first flower bud." (4/5)
Since first seeing photos of the Himalayan Blue Poppy, I've wanted it! I have a wee photo from the Buchart Gardens on Vancouver Island, and even had young plant from a rare plant nursery, and hoped ....
Wayne gotta on top say that after his 5 crowns 'caught and flourished,' each had a fat, furry bud in its center - and he was so tempted to let one bloom ...
Fortunately, another 'good gardener' explained that seedling or division Meconopsis, capable of becoming perennials, will expend everything on that first flower, and become monocarpic, fading away like a biennial!
"So if it is really betonicifolia that you have, you had better pinch"
In the Findhorn Garden, the Blue Poppy Deva tells Dorothy that in order to thrive, they want to be reminded of home.
This article offers tips on starting them from seed
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