Young upright, furry leaves. Roger Nelson, Lingholm. Photo: ES.

A 'boat-shaped' leaf showing the long petiole.

Flower ovate with overlapping petals. Roger Nelson, 1960s.

Elliptical shaped fruit capsule. Roger Nelson's M. 'Lingholm'.

Most Meconopsis hybrids are sterile but M. ‘Lingholm’ is an exception. It is a fertile hybrid resulting from the doubling of chromosomes. It can be grown either from seed (the offspring may be variable) or by division. In the early 1960s sterile hybrids, believed to be M. ‘Slieve Donard’, were purchased from Jack Drake’s Inshriach nursery in Scotland to be planted in a garden in Brampton, Cumbria. One of these previously sterile plants produced viable seeds. Seeds were given to Lingholm Garden, also in Cumbria, where it was mistakenly sold as M. grandis for many years. When Mike Swift became head gardener in 1984 he realised the plants were different and named them Meconopsis ‘Lingholm’.

Description

The saucer-shaped flowers are sky blue with four overlapping, rounded petals, which are slightly fluted. The colour is deeper towards the centre. There are usually two to four flowers coming from the false whorl on each stem. Occasionally one or two more flowers come the upper leaf axils Flowering is usually mid May to June.

The narrow, protruding style develops into an ellipsoidal fruit capsule densely covered with pale straw, white-tipped bristles.

The young leaves are green and covered with pale white-tipped hairs. They are upright and slightly boat-shaped. Mature leaves have long petioles. They have an elliptic shape. The leaf margins have irregular shallow notches.

Plants of Meconopsis ‘Lingholm’ are easily available from nurseries, garden centres and mail-order companies. Seeds are available from many seed companies and specialist seed exchanges.

Large numbers can be seen at Lingholm Estate at Portinscale, near Keswick in Cumbria, and in the National Plant Collections in the UK.

Seed-raised Meconopsis ‘Lingholm’ can be variable. Good clones include the one raised in Cumbria and another from Tromsφ in Norway that has slightly smaller flowers.