Friday 23 May 2014

Meconopsis Lingholm. Probably repeating myself but if you aspire to blue poppies in the garden this is the one. It was originally found in a Lake district garden (Cumbria). It is derived from the old sterile hybrid  M. x sheldonii. This was a cross between M. betonicifolia and M. grandis and these were sterile.  By  chance a part of one of these plants became tetraploid and now there were two sets of chromosomes from each parent and normal division could take place and plant became fertile and produces masses of seed since they are vigorous plants and very long lived. I found a similar fertile pod on a M. x sheldonii many years ago in my garden and this too produced a rather smaller and perhaps less effective perennial fertile plant called I called Kingsbarns x hybrids after where I live in East Fife.