Meconopsis Visual Reference Guide. Includes Photos, Taxonomy And Cultivation Information.
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Sunday, 26 July 2015
Sunday, 19 July 2015
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.
Friday, 10 July 2015
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.
Sunday, 5 July 2015
I FEAR I COULD NOT RESIST THIS. ROAD WIDENING OPPOSITE THE HOUSE. BARE SOIL JUST LEFT UNTOUCHED SINCE THE SPRING. A LOVELY SIGHT OF THE WILD RED POPPY BUT WHERE DO THE SEEDS COME FROM ?!.THIS IS LIKE WHAT USED TO BE KNOWN AS MECONOPSIS CAMBICA (the welsh poppy) THEY MUST SURVIVE FOR MANY YEARS AS DORMANT SEEDS AND THEN GERMINATE WHEN THE SOIL IS DISTURBED. PS Sorry I forgot the picture when I made this post.