I'm pumped that my Himalayan Blue Poppy is doing so well this season. The first flower opened yesterday.
Himalayan Blue Poppy
Congratulations, Todd! And what a beauty you have! And it looks like it's going to make several more blooms. Thanks for posting the pic! t.
I can't believe you got it to bloom. That is one major green thumb you have, Congratulations. Blue poppies are very difficult. I was told the plants have to be a little older. Did you find that so? Tell me about your conditions for growing this. I saw the blue poppy once in a garden, I was so excited to see the real thing.
do you know if your poppy will grow in zone 7, warmer climate? I"ve never seen them here in the south but I am a blue flower fetish freak?!! thank you,
I grow it in high shade and keep it reasonably moist. The soil is acidic. Our summer temps rarely exceed 30 C and in the shade, the temp rarely exceeds 25 C (80 F). Blue poppies hate high temps and dry conditions (including humidity). We even have troubles growing it in full sun considering how cool we are. In fact, the best ones I've ever seen were growing in Tromso, Norway, above the Arctic Circle! Needless to say, they were growing in full sun there but their summer temps rarely exceed 70 F! being native to mountains above 4100 m, they experience cold winters but lots of snow and summers are quite cool and airy...conditions not easy to duplicate in most areas of North America. I usually curse our cold climate but for blue poppies, we are actually quite fortunate.
Ooooh Baby, that is gorgeous! I've eyed that one up in the catalogs a million times....congrats!!
my compliments to you...excellent
Congrats again, Todd, thanks for the info; after all it is called the "Himalayan" blue poppy.
Yes they are very difficult to grow so well done Todd. They are so beautiful!
Thank you for posting this picture.Moreover thank you for posting the conditions needed for growing.Since my growing conditions are the exact opposite I'll forget even thinking about growing it.
Well done!
Hi Todd - your blue poppy is gorgeus! The leaves are so green and fresh looking :-) Needless to say - they love it here since we never get warmer than 70°F, mostly 50's and low 60's so they grow best in part-sun here.
rann--a beautiful specimen, too!
I am so happy to 'know' gardeners who have the skill/luck/conditions to grow such exotics (to me, anyway!).
Congratulations to you too, rann from Iceland. I am so impressed. It portion of this earth can certainly have its beauties and specialities.
I purchased some seeds for this poppy on E-Bay. Couldn't get 1 of them to germinate. Now that I'm more "seasoned" as far as gardening goes, I would really like to try them again. I think I could provide them with the correct growing conditions (now that I've done more research on them) here in Maine.
I am currently nurturing many seedpods from my Lady Slippers. I pollinated them all this spring and every single one that I pollinated are going to have babies :) I would be willing to share a whole pod for some seeds of this poppy.
I have 7 pods (one has been adopted so I'm down to 6) on my rare white lady slippers which should be ready to harvest in October. You can see pictures here:
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/726576/
Thank you both so much,
Kim
Nice one Rann....last year mine was more purple-tinted since June was warmer than usual. This June has been cooler than usual and those temps have allowed the more intense blue to come through.
Thanks Todd - I didn't know they turned more purple in higher temps ......... that's interesting. I noticed that the newest flower has a purple tint in the center and was wondering why that was - the past few days have been warm and sunny - around 60-65°F - could that be the reason?
Some always have a purplish tint regardless to temp so you often have to select the best plant. Mine was purplish-tinted last year but is striking blue this..the only difference I can foresee has been the temps so I assume the cooler temps would allow for a richer colour.