The Blue Poppy


Meconopsis grandis, nicknamed the Blue Poppy (although it is only poppy-like), is the national flower of Bhutan. In the late spring of 1922, a British Himalayan expedition, led by legendary mountaineer George Leigh Mallory, discovered the plant on their failed attempt to reach the summit of the then-unconquered Mount Everest. The flowers were introduced to much excitement at the Royal Horticultural Society's spring show of 1926.