Meconopsis aka Himalayan blue poppy

Soft Blue: Himalayan Blue Poppy

Posted on by Ann Mackay

This is a bit of a post and run today, because it has been a very busy time over the last week. It’s been frustrating not to have time to take new photographs, but hopefully I’ll be able to get back to doing what I love soon.

The photograph above is a flower I love to see – a Himalayan blue poppy (Meconopsis). It is frequently grown in Scotland, where the conditions suit it. (It looks wonderful near water, with trees and shrubs growing around it.)

I tried growing a couple of plants in our previous garden in Scotland, but they only lasted two or three years before dying out. At the time I thought I simply hadn’t kept them moist enough but I’ve learned since that they’re short-lived perennials. So maybe they wouldn’t have lasted a lot longer anyway.

There’s something about a plant being difficult to grow or hard to obtain that makes them all the more appealing to gardeners. I’m trying to learn to keep to plants that have a good chance in my very warm and dry garden (still a learning process). That means that I won’t be buying any blue poppies – they really wouldn’t like it here. But I can enjoy the memory of them.

The reason for being so busy this week is that we’re getting the garden ready for a contractor to come in and replace the fence around the garden. There’s far more to do than I had first realised and it seems to have taken a lot of time! Shrubs and trees have been cut back, lots of things, (including a large compost heap) have been moved and room still has to be found to store the new fence panels, posts and gravel boards…phew!

It will be a great relief to get this work done. The oldest part of the fence was blown down by gales in early spring. Since then it’s been cobbled together and propped up as best we can, so that the neighbours’ young dog can’t escape from their garden. (He managed it once, and had a lovely time playing and evading capture in our garden.) Originally the new fence was to be started mid-May – but Covid stopped it.

The job will take three weeks and there’s till plenty for me to do to create enough working space. After that I’ll be glad to get back to my photography and to planning some new planting!

Published by Ann Mackay

Photographer, mixed-media art adventurer and completely daft about plants.......

17 thoughts on “Soft Blue: Himalayan Blue Poppy”

    1. Thanks Liz! It’s a photo taken quite a while ago, when I was visiting a garden. I’d love to get back to visiting gardens again – maybe after the fence is done. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

    1. There will certainly be more photos – though not of the blue poppy because I don’t imagine I’ll see one of those again soon. Probably other blue flowers! 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  6. The Blue Poppy is a beauty – has very different type of petals. That must be pretty exciting to get a new fence for your garden – sounds like it will be very helpful once it gets in. Glad the contractors could finally get started on it.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I do love these blue poppies – wish I could grow them! Work has started on the fence…I’m still cutting back and clearing on the other side of the garden…!

      Liked by 1 person

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