Meconopsis Species

M. aculeata	M. horridula	M. regia
M. argemonantha	M. impedita	M. robusta
M. X Beamishii	M. integrifolia	M. rudis
M. bella	M. lancifolia	M. sherriffii
M. betonicifolia	M. latifolia	M. simikotensis
M. bijiangensis	M. longipetiolia	M. simplicifolia
M. chankeliensis	M. ludlowii	M. sinomaculata
M. concinna	M. lyrata	M. sinuata
M. x Cookei	M. napaulensis	M. speciosa
M. delavayi	M. neglecta	M. staintonii
M. dhwojii	M. paniculata	M. superba
M. discigera	M. pinnatifolia	M. taylori
M. x finlayorum	M. prainiana	M. tibetica
M. forrestii	M. pratti	M. torquata
M. florindae	M. primulina	M. venusta
M. ganeshensis	M. pseudointegrifolia	M. violacea
M. georgei	M. pseudovenusta	M. wallichi
M. gracilipes	M. punicea	M. wilsonii
M. grandis	M. qinghaiensis	M. wumungensis
M. x Harleyana	M. quintuplinervia	M. zanganensis
M. henricii	M. racemosa
HYBRIDS	NEW SPECIES

CURRENTLY AND FOR THE LAST 2 MONTHS MY COMPUTER HAS A PROBLEM. I CANNOT LOAD ANY IMAGES. NORMAL SERVICE WILL BE RESUMED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!

I have two white Dactylorhiza orchids. This one is a hybrid produced by the late Gerry Munday. It does well and doubles every year, allowing plants to be passed on to others. It is large and striking. I suspect I have shown this plant earlier.

Codonopsis are a genus of plants that usually climb up others. The top image is C. meleagris. An unusual and attractively marked flower. The real down side is that it has a horrible smell when touched. The one below is Codonopsis vinciflora - normally an attractive blue but in this case a perfect clear white and the flower 2 inches across. They both have underground tubers and die back to these in winter. They slowly spread undergound but are not invasive. Really useful climbing up the stems of Meconopsis napaulensis like and even M. grandis types while one waits to collect seed from them. 

All sorts of Trillium fit in well with Meconopsis. I have two really nice dwarf forms of the species Trillium  rivale which form a really nice edging. It is very long lived and gradually spreads to form  good clumps which can be divided. I also have a very nice pink form of this. These two plants do occasionally set seed. 

Many Meconopsis are now well passed their  best in flower but are beginning to produce healthy looking seed pods. These need carefully labelling so that seed for the various exchanges is correctly named. 

The image here has nothing to do with this but once again shows the value of only ever top dressing with leaf mould and not turning the soil over since orchids then develope from seed under ground before flowering after a few years . This nice, very pale group most likely has either the white hybrid Gerry Munday or the white species Dactylorhiza o'kellyi as one parent. 

I have large clumps of various species of Cypripedium in among the Meconopsis. These were always bought as small plants and over the years can form magnificent clumps but it is a slow process. Many of the Dactylorhiza orchids do grow from seed in the garden in association with micorhiza and usually flowers appear after three or four years underground as a single large flower spike. This image is of the native slipper orchid Cypripedium calceolus which was dug up from the wild until only a handful of plants survived. Things have changed now. Orchid seeds  do not carry food reserves but in the case of the lovely species of Cypripediums people have learnt how to grow them in tissue culture or from seeds in culture. They are therefore now widely available though no doubt expensive.