Meconopsis x beamishii. This ia a hybrid between a form of M. grandis and either M. integrifolia or M. pseudointegrifolia. The blue/ yellow crosses always seem to be this same creamy white. It will hopefully be perennial but only a proportion are. The cross with the yellow species and M. betonicifolia is M. x sarsonsii. The leaves of the hybrids usually more closely resemble the blue parent and this is how the two can be told apart.

Trilliums very much a group of plants that are happy growing with meconopsis. This is a lovely double form. They only increase slowly but eventually they will split. This is Trillium grandiflorum Flore Plenum.

Meconopsis Lingholm. Probably repeating myself but if you aspire to blue poppies in the garden this is the one. It was originally found in a Lake district garden (Cumbria). It is derived from the old sterile hybrid  M. x sheldonii. This was a cross between M. betonicifolia and M. grandis and these were sterile.  By  chance a part of one of these plants became tetraploid and now there were two sets of chromosomes from each parent and normal division could take place and plant became fertile and produces masses of seed since they are vigorous plants and very long lived. I found a similar fertile pod on a M. x sheldonii many years ago in my garden and this too produced a rather smaller and perhaps less effective perennial fertile plant called I called Kingsbarns x hybrids after where I live in East Fife. 

In the heaviest shade behind my main Meconopsis beds and in front of the bee bowls are a fern collection alongside a path. I love the delicate spring green of these that gradually darken as summer progresses. 

Fritillaria is another good genus where many are happy to flower in spring in open ground but are quite happy in the sun in the peat beds during the summer. All my plants in this genus are seed grown and most set good seed annually to pass on. My memory is not what it used to be but I think this is Fritillaria grandiflora - certainly a very large flower for this genus. 

Another picture that really is an indoor plant but in full flower in an bed in the alpine house. This is Iris hoogiana variety noblesse. I also have the straight species. I have never tried these outside - perhaps I should. They have a wonderful smell which is why I have a whole row along the far side of the indoor bed. In the garden the Meconopsis rosette species are sending up flowering spikes - so not too long to wait!

Another wonderful blue flower - the Chatham Island forget-me-not. This is Mytosotidium hortensia locally known as the Kopa Kopa. It is in the Boraginaceae but not a forget me not as we know them. It is said to need shelter from frost and I do have it on a shaded south facing wall and it regularly sets seeds which give me young plants. I have always loved blue flowers and there was a man with the pseudonym of Novalis (who was actually Georg Philipp Friedrich von Hardenberg  1772 - 1801) from the Harz Mountains. He said the blue flower symbolises desire, love and beauty. 

Slightly taken aback to find this at Branklyn. I have kept this for years in my daughter's Caithness garden. It does set seed from a single plant but have no idea where the garden in Perth obtained this from or why on earth it is called James Cobb! It is one of three distinct forms of Meconopsis grandis that I have  and  always called it Early Sikkim. As I write the first blue poppies are out in the garden of my Invergowrie daughter which is a very early date.