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Papaveraceae
Tibetan Blue Poppy
Meconopsis betonicifolia
Mystery, the unattainable, Himalayan magic.
- Family
- Papaveraceae
- Genus
- Meconopsis
- Native to
- Tibet, Yunnan, Bhutan
- Bloom season
- Early-Summer
- Type
- Perennial
- Height
- 60–120 cm (2–4 ft)
- Sunlight
- Part shade
- Soil
- Acidic, humus-rich, consistently moist
- Water
- High
- Hardiness
- 5–8
- Lifespan
- Short-lived perennial
Did you know
- The Tibetan blue poppy is so famously hard to grow that it has its own dedicated 'Meconopsis Group' of obsessed gardeners around the world, swapping seeds and consoling each other over failures.
- It was discovered in 1904 by British plant hunter Frank Kingdon-Ward, but his collected seeds wouldn't germinate—the species wasn't successfully cultivated outside Tibet until 1924.
- The flowers are so blue they appear to glow—a true sky blue almost unique among flowers, caused by an unusual combination of cell structure and pH-shifted anthocyanins.
- Despite countless attempts, no one has ever managed to grow Meconopsis well in warm climates—it requires cool damp summers below 70°F, restricting it to Scotland, Norway, and the Pacific Northwest.
- The plant appears as the floral emblem of Bhutan, where it grows wild in alpine meadows above 12,000 feet and is featured on Bhutanese currency.
Color meanings
0
the unattainable
1
mystery
2
Himalayan dream