My friend Pete Webb plant guru extraordinaire sent this magical photo and wrote these poetic words feeding my dream of growing the beautiful but notoriously temperamental Blue Tibetan Poppies when we move to the Blue Mountains…
“Meconopsis I saw in the mountains of Tibet. I asked the spirits to lead me to them in my walks in the mountains and they are not a deception and all of the enchantment you may already feel in your body. Each one a little different from the other. The same blue, yet having said that, you as an artist know that blue is never the same; some always escapes to the sky.
In Tibet it is so incredible as there are basically no trees and you feel the sky touch the earth. Where Meconopsis grow, at least the last ones I saw, you/we are actually sandwiched between sky and earth as there is less oxygen and you have to go slow or spin out with a terrible thumping headache.
But yes, find a happy lineage to get seed from and put the seed in the refrigerator. Tell them some cold weather stories when you sow them and then sneak out to see them when they are in flower. They are fugitives like blue.
Thanks for being you
Love Pete
PS. The first one I saw; the last ones I can’t find the photos at the moment but I will. Just to wet your whistle. They are more robust at times. Here with some Artemisias and a Larkspur”
It's Crow Time 
Magic! I never would have imagined!
(((Nancy))) I have never seen one in real life but have dreamed of growing these blue poppies for many many years
How lovely and delicate. Never knew they existed. Love and Blessings to you both.
(((Sue))) there are so many beautiful cool climate plants that I will be able to grow for the first time when we move to the Blue Mountains, x fingers by the end of the year!
What a wondrous color! Lucky you if you can grow them.
(((Dana))) love the thought of encouraging the seeds to grow with cold weather stories!
oh what a wordsmith he is… he paints a picture that one can not only see but feel. Where would one get seeds from Mo….& would they grow in Melbourne…or is it not cold enough here chilly as it is. They look so delicate.
(((Eliene))) Diggers Seed Club sells the seeds, they need a cool climate with moist free draining soil where the temperature doesn’t go over 30 degrees in summer, reckon an ice cube mulch would help in Melbourne & in the Blue Mountains on the hot days. One of the supervisors at Sydney Botanic Gardens told me the story of how they grew wild year after year in his aunt’s garden in the wild north of Scotland where nothing else would grow!
how their heads are turned down, as if in modesty … blues beyond belief …
(((Liz))) love how Pete describes how they are made of sky !
Oh what a dream to have and pursue! Isn’t that the most beautiful thought that a little bit of blue escapes to the sky each year. Thinking now of all the blue flowers letting a little bit go and painting that big blue sky for us…oh my.
(((Fiona))) you could have a go at your beautiful cottage in Scotland!
MC – Gorgeous colour. B
(((Barry))) so looking forward to living in the cooler climate of the Blue Mountains & having a go at growing these fabulous poppies along with wood anemones, peonies, daffodils, tulips, snakeshead fritillaries, weeping cherries, silver birch… the list goes on of so many cool climate plants that don’t cope with our hot summers here in Sydney!