Tansy moon, first, the blue poppies are meconopsis, not papaver. And no, I can't think of any other perennial poppies that need to put all the energy into forming basal growth before being allowed to flower. Wendy, I've bought commercial seed for three types meconopsis from Chilterns and had great germination with all. I've sown seed from my own plants immediately, and I've also left that seed on a plate to dry, then stored it in zip locks on my desk for up to a year and had the same good germination. But I don't think I've kept it longer than that so I couldn't say what kind of germination you might find after 12 months.

Hello! I used to live in California. I love the ceanothus (aka California lilac) bushes, which have bright blue flowers. Ceanothus is low maintenance and draught tolerant. It grows all over California. I haven't yet managed to find it in New Mexico; would love to have some. Russian sage has long stalks of purple flowers. I love plumbago, which is low growing. It is a good border plant, which spreads nicely. Plumbago has dark blue flowers. Speedwell, a type of Veronica, is a creeping ground cover with light blue flowers. I like my scabiosa plants (aka pincushion flowers) very much, they are evergreen. Catmint is a low growing, spreading bush with medium color blue flowers. All of the above mentioned are perennial and do well in sunny conditions. There are types of scabiosa and Russian sage which have the word blue in their names, but the flowers are actually lavender or purple in color. The Russian sage flowers resemble lavender. They are not fragrant, but somehow they attract a lot of bees. I have seen hedges of Russian sage, which are quite attractive. They can grow to be about five feet high. Mexican sage has beautiful, fuzzy, deep purple flowers with white accents. It lasts for years in California, but I haven't managed to get one to overwinter in New Mexico. Blue flowers are my favorites. Can you tell? Good luck with your blue/purple garden. Lorna

Any meconopsis is a difficult alpine plant for Minnesota. Our climate is contradicting in several ways. As a member of the Minnesota chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society for 20 years, I know several people who have tried cultivating blue poppies, a few who were successful for a few years, and only one or two that actually got it to flower. If you're in for a REAL challenge, go for it. But don't get your hopes up. Rick

Hi Bill, I do remember the photos you posted of your new renovation and I was quite impressed with the job you did. The whole project came out great. Lots of good ideas and execution. AND, it looks like low maintenance in many ways too. I will look forward to seeing your new space mature. The catcus in one location didn't do well over the winter last year but I still had a patch of them in the fall. I've been immersed in one project or another that has kept me out of the garden. I barely have had a chance to even walk around the yard since summer, so I haven't noticed what the cactus are doing. I'm hoping that no snow cover and mild temps were good for them this year, but we have had some very cold temps with no snow cover. Thanks for the reminder, I'll have to check them out next time I'm out and I'll let you know. I can't believe it is almost February! Spring is right around the corner and I can't wait!