Meconopsis heldonii ‘Lingholm’

Meconopsis heldonii ‘Lingholm’, the Himalayan Blue Poppy.  There are few flowers within the garden that can be as striking as the Himalayan Blue Poppy.  The blue is vividly iridescent, and amongst the other herbaceous plants it really is quite striking.  This is a favourite image, not simply because of the vivid blue colour, but the fragility of the translucent petals and delicate hairs on the stem.  The species has been introduced into cultivation during the past 150 years from their mountainous Asian habitats.  The variety ‘Lingholm’ is thought to have been bred by chance in a Cumbrian garden in the late 1970’s.