M. 'David Smith'
An elegant tall growing cultivar (1.2 - 1.5m) with attractive flowers of a good blue colour.
Named by: The Meconopsis Group, 2020. Registered by: The Meconopsis Group, 2020.
Flowering: late May - late June. Between 3 and 6 lateral facing to half-nodding sky blue flowers arise on long pedicels from the false whorl with additional flowers arising from the uppermost leaf-axils. The deeply overlapping petals are ovate to rounded, smooth edged and only slightly undulate.
Emerging foliage: Firm textured broadly elliptical leaves on sturdy, short, winged petioles emerge in late March. The young leaves have a very furry appearance and are densely covered on both surfaces with long brown hairs.
Mature foliage: The mature basal leaves are long-petioled, their lamina lanceolate to lanceolate elliptic with a sub-acute apex and a truncate or shortly attenuate base. The leaf margins are shallowly toothed along their full length.
Fruit capsule: Narrowly ellipsoid, covered with pale straw coloured spreading bristles. Long narrow style and stigma. Fertile.
Etymology: This cultivar is named after David Smith who was the gardener at Ascreavie in the 1970s and who later looked after a garden at Kirkhill, Angus. He propagated this cultivar by seed and gave one of his plants to Ian Christie. Ian has only ever propagated the plant given to him by division and the plant description is based on these vegetatively raised plants.