MECONOPSIS
Family PAPAVERACEAE
Meconopsis species
Biennial/Annual
Mostly from the Himalayas, Tibet and western
China, with one from California.
Probably the most favoured of the biennials is
the Tibetan Lampshade
Poppy (Meconopsis integrifolia), with hairy
leaves, smooth edged, and spikes of pale yellow
poppy-like flowers, six inches across, with a
central mass of orange anthers on eighteen-inch
stems.
Another pale-yellow flowered species is the Himalayan
Meconopsis dhwojii.
Meconopsis aculeata, also from the Himalayas,
has flowers of medium blue with a central mass
of yellow stamens.
From California comes the Flaming Poppy (Meconopsis
heterophylla), producing large flowers of bright
orange, with the centre ringed with maroon; it
is an annual and reaches one and a half feet.
The first three species are biennial and seed
may be sown in pans of peaty and sandy compost
as soon as ripe, pricked off into pots and planted
out in the following spring in a partially shaded
position in peaty soil that is free from lime.
The annual species may be sown where it is to
flower and requires similar conditions.
Propagation is from seed.
The flowering season is in early summer.
Meconopsis – Welsh Poppy
Hardy Perennial.
One foot to eighteen inches.
Flowers yellow or light orange, July and August.
A perennial Poppy of mountain origin, akin to
the Iceland and Alpine families. It prefers a
soil with the not always attainable combination
of moisture with good drainage.
The common form has single light yellow flowers,
on slender hairy stalks rising from a ground-rosette
of pale green leaves; there is also a double form
of pale orange.
The plant may be raised from seed sown about
July; the extra attention of sowing in a box of
light compost, and a little care in shade and
watering will make the result the surer.
It is well the Welsh Poppy, as with the Alpine
and the Iceland, not to think of them too rigidly
as perennials; a yearly sowing of seed will save
much disappointment.
See Also : Poppy , Tibetan
Poppy
|
