Mrs Jebb
Meconopsis ‘Mrs Jebb’
Infertile Blue Group. MG No. 16.
Named and Registered by The Meconopsis Group in 2000.
Awards: AM (2006). AGM (2013).
This cultivar had previously been known as either ‘Miss Jebb’
or ‘Mrs Jebb’. The name ‘Mrs Jebb’ was confirmed on registration.
Basal leaf showing neat crenate teeth and sub-obtuse tip.
Ellipsoidal fruit capsule with short style and covered with short hairs.
It is thought that this clone may have originated in a batch of ‘Crewdson Hybrid’ seedlings when this was still fertile and being raised from seed in Jack Drake’s nursery at Inshriach.
Like Meconopsis ‘Crewdson Hybrid’ it is shorter than many other clones, about 70 cm tall. It is named after Mrs. Jebb, who grew this clone in her Dumfriesshire garden. After her death, the new owners of the property, Mr. and Mrs. McLaren, gave a piece of the plant to Mollie Sanderson, who took it back to her garden in Ireland, following a visit to the McLaren’s garden in about 1970.
She in turn gave a division to Margaret and Henry Taylor, who have distributed it extensively in Scotland.
Description
The shallow saucer-shaped, deep blue flowers are borne on short pedicels and face outwards. The four petals are crisp, pleated, orbicular and broadly overlapping.
The emerging narrow leaves are suffused with a red-purple pigment, but with an additional brownish tinge.
The ascending to spreading mature basal leaves are elliptical, with neat crenate teeth on the margin and with a sub-obtuse tip.
The fruit capsule is ellipsoidal, densely covered with short bristles, merging with a short, squat, broad style, and an almost globular stigma.
This sterile clone flowers mid-season, from mid May to mid June.
Meconopsis ‘Mrs Jebb’ is widely available from specialist nurseries. It is easily propagated by division.
Meconopsis ‘Mrs Jebb’ in the flower bed at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.