BOTTOM IMAGE -------- This is a flowering spike of P.C.Abildegaard. This will almost certainly be yet another of the classic crosses of M. betonicifolia crossed with M. grandis. (all called M. x Sheldonii). It was named and distributed by Evelyn Stevens of the Meconopsis Group in the U.K. from material sent to her from a University in Copenhagen, Denmark and named after a professor there. The origin of this plant in Denmark is not known.  In Wick, where this image was taken, it is very perennial and regularly sends out suckers making propagation very easy - indeed I took six from suckers up to 60cms. away last year. The flowers, at least in Wick, always have vague mauve overtones. It has been likened to the wonderful hybrid produced in Edinburgh many years ago from the same parents and subsequently named by an Irish garden as Slieve Donard -  but with that wonderful cultivar it has always been a perfect blue where ever I have grown it. Slieve Donard is illustrated on this site on the entry for May 29th growing at the Royal Botanic Gardens this year. 

TOP IMAGE ----------- I have added an image of the perfect blue Slieve Donard growing for comparison in the lovely woodland garden of the Cox family at Glendoick (only open until the end of May).