Buy dried flowers, dried poppies & poppy seeds.

Blue poppy

Blue poppy or Himalayan poppy are synonyms. These names make reference to a plant that grows, as you can tell by the name, in the Himalayas, India.

The blue poppy belongs to the Meconopsis genus. This genus consists of 50 species of annual, biennials, and short lived perennials. Mountainous areas, alpine meadows or woodland and rocky slopes in the eastern Himalayas and western China are the places where the plants conforming this genus grow. But if this plant belongs to the Meconopsis genus and poppies are from the Papaver genus, why is it called blue poppy? The reason is that most Meconopsis differ from poppies only in the shape of the seed capsules. In the true poppy the seed capsule is covered with a disc or lid which splits to release the seed and in Meconopsis the capsule opens longitudinally. Meconopsis were properly introduced almost 200 years ago but all the species haven't been identified because it is difficult to explore the terrain were they are native from.

Blue poppy.- It is a perennial herb with hairy, lance shaped, dark green basal and stem leaves. Of the Meconopsis genus this poppy is the most representative and liked one because of it's amazing tones of blue. It can survive very cold temperatures but can't tolerate hot ones. It grows in partial shade. There are 3 species of blue poppies and many hybrids grown in cultivation.

Meconopsis simplicifolia was discovered around 1848. It was the first one to be discovered. This species doesn't get as much attention as the other 2. It is said that it is not being cultivated for unknown reasons.

Meconopsis Betonicifolia or Himalayan Blue Poppy was discovered in north-west Yunnan in 1886 and it's probably the most popular and widely grown member. It grows from 3 to 5 feet high and gets stems with 4 to 5 flowers each..

Meconopsis Grandis or Tibetan Blue Poppy was discovered around the 1880's in east Nepal. It is the national flower of Bhutan. This blue poppy gets up t 2 feet high and it's stems also have 4 to 5 flowers and their larger and cupped than the Betonicifolia ones.

Blue poppy legal situation.- this is a controversial subject because there is a famous drug that is extracted from poppies: opium. But what most people don't know is that opium is extracted only form the Opium Poppy or Papaver Somniferum and think that all poppies have this narcotic substance. Although governments do keep a close watch on poppy cultivation so that opium poppy is not grown for illegal purposes.

With that being said blue poppy cultivation is legal and so are the different products made from blue poppy: seeds, oil, flowers, etc.