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Re: [SG] Meconopsis help?

Dear Shadegardeners;
I am a relatively new lurker, gardening in Nova Scotia (Zone 6a) on a
regular city lot (15 x 30 m.) surrounded by neighbours with lots of old
trees.  Some of my lot gets 3 hours of sunlight a day- the rest much less.
We also have a small greenhouse.

My husband and I tend to be "groupies"- that is, we like to try various
things within a genus for a while- see what we can do with it- then move
on to something new.

About four years ago we obtained "miscellaneous" Meconopsis seeds. Today,
one of them bloomed for the first time :-)  :-)  :-)  (Thats supposed to
indicate the big grins all around the place here!)  I have been trying to
identify it- but have come up short. Hoping for some help.

The flower on this plant is deep carmine (Blood Red!). Typical meconopsis
structure though- with a frill of golden stamens inside- just like the
blue ones.  The plant is about 1+ m. high- sturdy stalk- many flower
buds. (Only one open so far-). It over-wintered as a rosette of
exceedingly furry leaves (reminded me of a polar bear pelt we had
when I was young)- some plants were covered wiith white fur- some with
golden. The leaves are deeply cut, with acute lobes, less-so on the stem
leaves.

Phillips and Rix show M. punicea with a flower about the right colour,
but with solitary flowers- not at all like our plant-  The "Colour
Library Complete Book of Gardening", 1989, refers to M. horridula, 3
1/2', blue, red or white but no picture or other description-and M.
napaulensis, 5 ft., pale mauve and pink- The 1995 Thompson & Morgan
catalogue refers to M. napaulensis (syn. M. wallichii) "Magnificent
Himalayan species, eye-catching geen and gold downy foliage and prolific
display of 3 in rosy-red occasionally purple-red flowers..." but no
illustration :-( Taylor's Garden Guide, 1957 refers to M. wallichi (sic)
as 3-6 ft. A stout plant making a mound of foliage which is covered with
a bloom. Flowers pale blue, not particularly showy.

So. Some conflicting descriptions in the literature and not enough
pictures! I have seen references to somebodys "monograph on the
Meconopsis" but not enough info to do an inter-library loan.

Help!

Anybody grow Meconopsis? Any suggestions?

Do we consider it a "shade plant"?

Do we have a definition of "shade"?

Long post I know. Thanks for persevering!

Marlene
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