Nothing to do with Meconopsis but in this dreary winter something that flowers is a great gift. This used to be called Iris unguicularis but is now known as Iris stylosa. After last years hot summer they have flowered wonderfully from late November. They are a really large flower with long stems and travel well in the post as cut flowers to my family. A good creamy white form does well for me. There is a wonderful large flowered variety called Walter Butt (shown) and, a dark blue and a very dark blue that I have seen described as a different species - Iris lazica. To me the last is just a really nice dark blue. Here in Scotland they need it hot in summer and are planted against a south facing wall. I have never seen any sign that they are not hardy but the biggest problems is slugs and particularly snails. They need constant slug pellets worked in among the thick clumps of leaves. I should add at this point that I am not very competent with computers and have had trouble lately with this programme. Yesterday an extremely good professional computer expert who devised and set up the website and Blog sorted out all my problems - and long may this last!