100th Anniversary of The Blue Poppy

Jennie Butchart was a keen promoter of newly discovered species of plants. One such plant was the Blue Poppy of Tibet, or Meconopsis betonicifolia ‘Baileyi’.

In 1925, Mrs. Butchart was one of the few people selected to receive seeds that had been gathered in 1924 by a renowned seedsman and botanist, Frank Kingdon-Ward.

First discovered in China around 1886 by French Catholic missionary J. M. Delavay, specimens of the poppy (but no seeds) were sent to Paris in 1889. A description was then published and the poppy was named Meconopsis betonicifolia: betonicifolia meaning with leaves shaped by betony; betony being a common name for Stachys officinalis.

In 1913, British Army Captain Bailey was doing research for the English Government in the high borders of China, Tibet, and India, where he discovered the blue poppy growing. Upon his return to England, he brought home a pressed specimen of the plant. In Bailey’s honour, the plant was given the name Meconopsis betonicifolia ‘Baileyi’.

In 1924, Kingdon-Ward set out on an expedition to find new specimens for Kew Gardens in England. Enroute, he visited Captain Bailey who was working for the British government in Sikkin, India. Bailey provided information as to where he had originally located the poppy.

In mid-June of 1924, Kindon-Ward, having crossed into Tibet, came to the quarry where Bailey originally spotted the blue poppy. Later that year, he harvested seeds from plants which he had marked earlier. The seeds were packaged in envelopes, well wrapped in paper and placed in biscuit tins and then soldered shut to be sent to England. The seeds arrived in the spring of 1925 and were promptly distributed to 50 gardens in the country. One garden, Edinburgh Botanical Garden, sent seeds to Mrs. Butchart in Canada.

In 1927, the Chelsea Flower Show began selling seedling poppies.

The seeds were advertised in #11 ‘Catalogue of Seeds grown at Butchart’s Gardens’ Tod Inlet, in 1932-1933.