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12 Jul 2024

The PLANTS project: Branklyn’s Meconopsis

Written by Alistair Chalmers, PLANTS East Team Manager
A close-up of several blue poppies growing in a flower bed.
Meconopsis at Branklyn Garden
PLANTS East Team Manager Alistair Chalmers explains the importance of the Meconopsis collection at Branklyn and how it has earned the garden a place in history.

Branklyn Garden in Perth is renowned for its national collection of Himalayan blue poppies (Meconopsis), which astonish visitors with their vivid colours from the end of May onwards. Probably the best-known plants in the garden, the big blue Meconopsis form one of Branklyn’s three National Collections. Meconopsis have long been associated with the garden, and when we audited Branklyn last May we encountered many wonderful cultivars with a deep history attached.

In the 1920s John and Dorothy Renton (the owners of the property) laid out Branklyn Garden on a damp, west-facing slope with acidic soil – these are the ideal conditions for Meconopsis. The Rentons were regularly sent seed by noted plant collectors of the period, most notably a batch of seed from the plant collectors George Sherriff and Frank Ludlow. The Rentons grew plants from this batch of likely Meconopsis grandis, which came from an area in the eastern Himalayas. The plants multiplied over the years. After the Second World War, nurseryman Jack Drake was sent some seed derived from these plants by Dorothy Renton. He in turn grew them on and sold the resulting plants all over the country. It is acknowledged that this was the source of many of the clones still in existence throughout Britain, most of which have returned to Branklyn as the National Collection.

Two bright blue poppies grow in a flower bed, with a gravel path and a small rhododendron plant in the background. A close-up of a sky blue poppy growing in a garden. It has yellow pollen at the centre.

Gardeners in Scotland may bemoan the damp, cool climate, but Meconopsis flourish in this environment and the acidic soil. Meconopsis vary in height, form and flowering times – with M. ‘Great Glen’ and M. ‘Mop-head’ being the first to flower in April and M. baileyi among the last. The colour also varies, from the rich deep blue of M. ‘Sikkim’ to the paler sky blue of M. ‘Maggie Sharp’.

Below are some of my favourite poppies from the garden.

A group of deep blue poppies, with a purple tinge to the end of their petals, growing in a garden. They have deep yellow centres. A group of purpley-blue poppies grow in a very neatly bordered flower bed in a garden. Other purple and yellow flowering plants grow around them. Three tall, bright blue poppies grow in a garden behind a bench. A pink flowering shrub grows beside them. A close-up of four blue poppies: two open to the light, and two folded in and facing down. Small pink flowers grow beneath them.

Not all Meconopsis are blue. Meconopsis baileyi, for example, has attractive white and purple forms such as Meconopsis baileyi var. alba and Meconopsis baileyi ‘Hensol Violet’, both of which can be found thriving at Branklyn.

There is also a red-flowered species of Meconopsis currently grown at Branklyn. Meconopsis punicea is rather more challenging to grow than its big blue cousins. Although perennial, it is usually short-lived in gardens. It has drooping flowers with intense carmine petals that have a crumpled appearance. Its native habitats are grassy slopes, open shrublands, mountain heaths and moorlands in China, but in Scotland, it thrives in a shady, woodland situation.

A close-up of a single white poppy with a bright yellow centre, growing in a woodland garden. Prickly poppy buds are behind it. A close-up of a purple poppy with a deep yellow centre. Large flowering shrubs grow in the background. A single, slightly drooping, deep red poppy grows alone in a flower bed.

Most of the Meconopsis grown at Branklyn are derived from Himalayan species, but one is native to Britain and is found in many gardens. It is the yellow Meconopsis cambrica, sometimes regarded as a weed.

Taxonomists have recently reclassified it and placed it in the genus Papaver. Some wish to reclassify all Meconopsis as Papaver, and there is currently a battle to preserve the name. However, whatever they are called in the future, there will always be a magnificent display at Branklyn Garden.

A close-up of a bright yellow poppy, growing close to the ground.
Meconopsis cambrica | Image: Alistair Chalmers

Plant Listing at the National Trust for Scotland (PLANTS) is the biggest horticultural audit project undertaken by the Trust and aims to celebrate, protect and better understand the flora and vegetation across our gardens and designed landscapes.

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