19 SEPTEMBER 1947, Page 17

In My Garden •

One of the loveliest of all garden flowers is the Himalayan poppy that is called Meconopsis Bailii ; and there are favoured spots of dappled shade, especially, I think, in Scotland, where it flourishes like bluebells in long vistas. Its chief glory is its blueness, but in many gardens it quite loses this virtue and takes on a rather dull purple hue as different from the true colour as a deciduous from an evergreen ceanothus. If anyone can name a cure for this disappointing discoloration he will have the gratitude of a host of gardeners. I tried the experiment of transplanting the decadents to another garden, but the exiles refused to flourish. It does not seem to have been generally agreed whether it is best to treat it as an annual, a biennial or a perennial! It may certainly be left tccits own devices on some few congenial sites. W. BEACH THOMAS.