Should we really be seeing this? I wouldn’t have thought so. May/June is when I would normally expect to see Meconopsis flower in my Perthshire garden here in Scotland. Until now I have only had the very popular blue variety more commonly known as the Blue Poppy which is quite stunning seen here back in June. I’m excited about adding some new colours with it and the first has definitley not disappointed!
Don’t get me wrong I am absolutely thrilled to see this first flower on a young plant only two months in my garden. However, I have to say it always unnerves me a little to see plants flowering out of season. My thoughts then go to the stats guys collecting data on global warming.
Usually we wouldn’t expect to see the flower looking as it is displayed in the photo above either. This single flower of Meconopsis x cookei was seen facing downwards after the rain yesterday like a tiny pink umbrella. I lifted it up and tucked it through fronds of a fern leaf when the sun came out to see inside for a photograph.
In all honesty, I nearly missed this flowering first! With my daughter still on school hols we’ve been out and about. I’ve not had a huge amount of time in my garden and with the rain showers haven’t ventured out with my camera much recently.
Don’t you think dark flowers and foliage look wonderful with raindrops on them? Then when the sun bursts through the clouds it then changes the mood of the garden completely. Wonderful light and shade bounce through and across both foliage and flowers.
Yep… as the flowers lift slowly towards the warm sunlight they are open for business for the insect diners like the hoverflies and bees. Cafe open now 😉
Beside my August flowering Meconopsis, in their correct flowering season, my Japanese Anemones have many flower buds soon to open. As with the Meconopsis, I always look forward to seeing the Anemones come into flower.
The first white Anemone below was almost hiding from my camera on Monday. I’ve had white ones for a few years now and have been successfully propagating them by gently lifting rooted offsets from around the edge of main parent plant. They can take perhaps 2-3 years to flower so I’m expecting a good display this year.
I’m also expecting a good display of pink flowering Anemones this year. I’ve the first flower from them at the moment too. Last year I bought a few plants at an end of season sale at a local garden centre. The plants looked a bit sad but I had faith that they would be happy once planted and would come back this year and flower for me. I can’t wait to see the full display.
I have to ask now… is there anyone else out there with a Meconopsis in flower at the moment? Also, any thoughts on why my young plant is flowering now? To be honest I didn’t expect any flowers even next year. I think I’ll ask around the forums.
If you want any further reading on the Meconopsis there is website, The Meconopsis Group. I never knew that until I was looking for info on my plant and this post. I think I’ll drop them an email to see what they think and will update this post with their response and any from the forums.
Oh… for anyone interested, I should add that there is a link to Seed Exchange on the Meconopsis website and members are not restricted to the UK. It isn’t expensive to become a member. Take a look at the Membership Application Form for prices. Looking through the info on this website I might join myself.
Finally, I’d also like to ask… what flowers are you eagerly awaiting in your garden at the moment? What are your favs at this time of year 🙂
All photos above were taken in my garden on August 9th 2010.
Anemones are my favorites this time of year. I also look forward to the toad lilies blooming too. We need rain. We are having another hot dry spell. We had record tieing heat today. UGH…
Hi Shirl,
I love that Mecanopsis… me wannnnttttsssssss oh and is it crazy that I had a dream last night about Blue Mecanopsis??
Sometimes I worry myself!
The meconopsis photos are beautiful as are those of the anenome. The blue meconopsis are not found commonly in gardens here in Nova Scotia, but some lucky and good gardeners have them. I have never seen one the color you posted…))) I always worry about Anemones becoming invasive and "traveling". Is that a concern for you? Hope your weather is lovely and you are enjoying the summer.
Awesome blooms! A little odd for this time of year, but never question…just accept the gift!
Shirl how old is this meconopsis? now I am no expert on these plants but someone told me not to let them flower in the first year though I'm not sure if that advice came from an expert. It is the most beautiful of colours – one I've never seen before.
Strange things happening in my garden too – the primrose heritage started flowering again in July and have not stopped since along with sporatic blooms from a clematis alpina.
As for strange things on blogs…..
Shirl – I noticed that someone had come from your site to mine too earlier this morning – I must go back and check my stats too.
Shirl – they came over via the tulip fest site – must have been the same person.
Hi Lisa, Liz, Bren, Kimberly and Rosie 🙂
Lisa, wonderful to think we both have the same fav with me in Scotland and you in SW Indiana 😀 I see you have some pink ones flowering at the moment too. Hope you get rain soon 🙂
Liz, Oh soooooooooo do I love it. Guess what… I planted two and the 2nd one has a flower now. Wind and rain and the first has lost its petals 🙁 You…. Dreaming about plants………. Really??
Bren, I think so too. Would have difficulty in deciding which I like best. Guessing Meconopsis would get it as the blooms don’t last so long and I know how special it is that they are happy in my garden. That pink is lovely although it was the rarer red one that looks like a handkerchief hanging that I tried to get and this was second best… a great 2nd best though! No concerns so far, the Anemone has been very slow to move its way around my garden… it is only travelling because I am moving it around. Our weather has been a mixed bag but at least we have had rain and the plants are happy. I’m not a sun worshipper so fine with me 😀
Kimberly, they are wonderful. Odd indeed… a gift… a lovely way to think of this but by what Rosie says below your comment maybe its not.
Rosie, oh… now the plant was only bought at the Gardening Scotland Show in June. I’d say it was young as the leaf rosette wasn’t big but then again maybe this variety isn’t big. The height of the flowering stem isn’t high. At a guess definitely not bigger than 18ins. The flower is gone now but I planted two and now the second has a flower. I’ll have to find the label now to see what it says. I agree a beautiful colour. Interesting to hear about your primrose, sometimes that happens doesn’t it? Yes the strange blog thing was horrible yesterday. I did notice in my stats that they visited a group of outside links on the tulip fest. That was the only outside direction they headed. I deleted my archive and another widget to stop them browsing and I can only assume they were copying by the links I followed that they took. They trawled for over 9 hours and my stats for the day rose to over 900! Not fun to see page views go backwards through the months and years on my blog either. I felt pretty powerless. Can’t decide if it was a good or bad thing that I was at home to see this. Knew a couple of bloggers to ask for help with some code and finally the German flag stopped appearing in my stats. Can’t know for sure if this was the end of it. Returned my archive now… we’ll just have to wait and see. Guess that’s the way of the internet.
Gorgeous Meconopsis – In contrast to your late blooms, ours has just started flowering at the end of April, crazy climate.
Best wishes, Cat @ Abriachan