Let's see if I can help alittle. First off the bat I do not currently grow these but intend to next year. I grow perennials for both personal and business reasons. First thing I did was do a search on google for Meconopsis betonicifolia & Meconopsis grandis and gathered all the info I could along with the many reference books I have. There's quite alot of info out there. On this garden web is a forum for Northwest gardeners, that is where I found the most people who grow them (I picked quite a few brains myself to aid in my decision). Try them also.

With regards to the soil testing, yes there are kits out there but the really accurate ones cost a bit much. Especially for a beginning gardener. Most people here in the US look in their phone book and get the number for their local county agriculture agent's office. There they have you bring in a few soil samples and for a fee of roughly $15 (US) you get a pretty extensive report. The agent can then advise you on any revisions you might have to make with regards to what you're planting. You probably have a set up that's similar with your government but worded abit different.

P.S. Many times I found the web for Devonian Botantical Garden in Alberta very useful (specifically their growing tips). http://www.discoveredmonton.com/devonian/getgro5.html
may be of interest to you. Good luck

Toad just found out that webpage above has been moved. Going to give you main address:
http://www.discoveredmonton.com/devonian/dbg.html
Go to the bottom of the page and listed will be a department called the green zone. Click on that and take it from there. They even have a section where you can email in gardening questions.

ok, thanks, i'll check out that other forum and the site.

thanks much,

-toad

I bought 2 of them this year, and what a pain in the butt!!!

First of all, they like moist shade. So, I put them in my well watered fern/hosta garden and they just about dried out upon planting. They need to be watered everyday, sometimes twice and if you let them dry out a tiny bit, you'll have to spend the whole day with them, begging for them to live. I went out of town for 3 days (soaked them the morning I left) came home to dead black stems.

Won't be doing that one again! All this for an annual.

Hi, since I live in Z5 these poppies are out of the question for me but I have a love of all things blue so that when I saw them discussed on Martha, I think, what I heard stuck in my brain. This guy says the 1st time they bloom you have to sacrifice the 1st bloom. Meaning puck it off! From what he said it makes the plant strong and the result is more bigger better blooms. Pluck 1st bloom while in bud. Let us know how its going...

I would love some of these, too. They're beautiful.
Then I found some seed packets for them. But just reading the tips on how to germinate and grow them gave me a headache. What a fussy plant!
And the way I keep moving things around in my shade bed would be very hard on any poppy, since they don't like to be moved anyway.
I think I'll just stick to the annual poppies. Toss some seed on the ground and walk away. My kind of plant :)

C.

The real trick to these is simply your location, they are not difficult if you live in a cool summer area with a marine influence to your weather....the difficult part is wanting to grow them when living in the wrong climate. The seeds germinate easily outdoors in open containers over winter, plants will bloom their second year if not disbudded. Removing the buds the first year they are produced is supposed to redirect the energy into the plant forming multiple basal rosettes, rather than behaving as a biennial....but you find arguments from growers for both allowing to bloom and disbudding depending on who you talk to.

I have to disagree about them needing water as often as twice a day. I have had them remain reliably perennial for several years planted in full sun, dappled shade, and morning only sun sites here so close to the ocean (I find they mildew then leaves disintegrate in full shade) and they receive the same once a week slow soak by drip irrigation as all my other perennials.

I do have some also growing in large containers....those I would move into shade if I were going to be gone a few days.

Hi everyone, would most of the above info appy to most varieties of perennial poppies? I have a couple of vaireties I would like to grow in lorge outdoor planters? Is it okay to grow them in planters?

Requirements aren't nearly as exacting for other perennial poppies as they are for meconopsis. Are you talking about papavar oriental? I don't see any reason they wouldn't work well in large containers, you would need to give them some root room....the root systems can be pretty extensive. (learned that when trying to move oriental poppy that was so bright it didn't go color-wise with anything near it...I moved it about three years in a row and it kept re-appearing from broken roots)

Here, in a bed where they don't get much supplemental water, the orientals go dormant for a few weeks in late summer, and send up new foliage in Fall. I haven't containerized those, so I'm not sure if they would still do that in a container that was being watered or not...but keep in mind that they may not make a good display without other foliage in the pot during August...

Here is a link that might be useful: Papavar oriental - this type?