Meconopsis 'napaulensis' is a really good garden plant. Ít has lovely rosettes of foliage which will gradually increase in size over several years until about May and then start to develop into a flowering spike, which flowers top down over at least a month. They will set abundant seed if there is more than one plant. I use inverted commas since what we now have in cultivation is a mix of a number of species. M. napaulensis in the wild as a true species is a yellow flowered one with a similar structure to the hybrids. The pink colouring may well come from something like M. staintonii. 

This is a busy time of year with a years food supply for all the family to be harvested. There is, as well, unending weeding due to the endless rain and good germinating weather. I am also  collecting seed for myself and various seed exchanges. I always have pots of seedling lilies on the go all the tíme as they can take up to five years to reach flowering size though Lilium formanosanum can flower in the second year. These two are variations on Lilium svovitzianum and are very tough strong growers that never need staking and with several plants will always set seed. 

Images of the wonderful red Meconopsis. M. punicea. This is now firmly back in cultivation thanks to a local lady who grew on seed from plants that I gave her some years ago. We have already been able to see these back in some gardens. I have given some to Julia Cordingly who runs the lovely Explorers garden in Pitlochry and the lady who rescued them has given some to Steve McNamara at the quite wonderful gardens at Branklyn  in Perth which he curates so excellently. I hope to take plants to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh for the late October Meconopis Group meeting to see they are shared out as widely as possible.