Young leaves showing red pigmentation.

Mature leaves which arch to the ground with long pedicels.

Single leaf showing white mid-rib.

Sky blue globular flowers.

Mature fruit capsule.

Meconopsis 'Crarae' is a very distinctive garden cultivar with globular flowers, which grows best in moist conditions. Large numbers of it were grown in Crarae Garden in Argyll.

Description

The large, cup-shaped, nodding or semi-nodding, globular flowers have a satiny appearance. They can be a clear sky blue or a mauve blue with rounded to ovate, broadly overlapping petals. Flowering is from mid May to June. There are usually two to three flowers in the false whorl.

Each flower has a narrow style, which sometimes shows a hint of pink, ending in a prominent stigma.

The fruit capsule is narrowly ellipsoidal and covered with straw-coloured bristles.

At first the young basal leaves are suffused with red-purple pigmentation. They are scarcely toothed and appear to be almost entire.

The mature basal leaves are pale green, oblong-elliptic in shape, on long arching petioles that reach towards the ground. This is a distinguishing feature for M. 'Crarae'.

The mid-ribs are conspicuous and almost white. The mature basal leaves have well-defined shallow teeth on the margin.

The stem leaves are at almost 45⁰, so the stem is clearly visible. The false bract leaves are relatively large.

Meconopsis 'Crarae' is available from specialist nurseries. It is sterile and can only be propagated by division.