These are some lovely Meconopsis at Far Reaches Farms in Pt Townsend, WA a few years ago. I grew my first from seed last year, and this year I’m scaling up!

Emboldened by my success, I ordered several species from the UK (they’re native to the Himalayas, but because the UK seems to be a nation of gardeners, they have all the cool seeds).

Behold my first batch of babies! Meconopsis Baileyi — very high germination, now pricked out into 2″ pots.

I’m quite pleased with myself over these modified tweezers. The Baileyi babies are really tiny (they’ve already grown significantly in this photo), and would have been impossible to pick out by hand without causing damage.

With these, I could pull out little plugs. 

So far I also have a few sprouts of Grandis and Lingholm and Naupalensis.

Still waiting for a couple species, but I have some things to try.

It’s fun, but it’s a long game — the earliest any of these babies could bloom is next year.

Fortunately I have my yearlings to look forward to. They are just starting to wake up from winter dormancy!