Himalayan Blue Poppy

Our weather forecast is for snow flurries this morning (23 March 2015) and light snow this afternoon. Temperature early today is -5C (windchill -8C). Supposed to be double digits in a few more days - in fact (so far) 17C on Friday!

So, I felt like a splash of different colour in my photostream and found it in this photo of a Himalayan Blue Poppy that was growing at the Reader Rock Garden, on 25 June 2014. It is always a joy to see these beautiful, large Poppies, though they seem to grow in the shade, and I never find them easy to photograph. Apparently, they are not easy to grow, either.

"Blue Himalayan Poppies are one of the most impressive plants for the shade garden. Plants form a rosette of hairy leaves, bearing large satiny flowers in an amazing shade of true blue. These are not always easy to please, demanding an evenly moist, rich soil and cool woodland conditions. Plants are not long lived, typically flowering in the second or third year, setting seed, then dying out. Gardeners in hot summer climates seldom succeed with these plants, yet they are surprisingly tolerant of cold winter conditions."

www.perennials.com/plants/meconopsis-betonicifolia.html