Since 1994, Bill Terry has lived on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, with his wife, Rosemary, pursuing a lifelong ambition to create the perfect garden. Bill specializes in plant propagation and has taught this subject in the Capilano University Continuing Education program. He also lectures on the Blue Poppy and its relatives and raises the plants for sale. His collection of Asiatic poppies (Meconopsis

Meconopsis

Meconopsis is a genus of flowering plants in the family Papaveraceae. The species have attractive flowers and have two distinct ranges. A single species, Meconopsis cambrica , is indigenous to England, Wales, Ireland, and the fringes of Western Europe. The other 40 or so species are found in the...

) is the most diverse in North America. He is a member of The Meconopsis Group, the Royal Horticultural Society

Royal Horticultural Society

The Royal Horticultural Society was founded in 1804 in London, England as the Horticultural Society of London, and gained its present name in a Royal Charter granted in 1861 by Prince Albert...

 and other gardening organizations. Now retired, Bill worked as a CBC executive, with a broadcast career that spanned thirty-five years and encompassed thirteen jobs in radio and television production and management in four Canadian cities. Bill believes gardening is the most optimistic of occupations, which explains why gardeners tend to live to a great age.

Blue Heaven

First cultivated in the 1920s, the Himalayan Blue Poppy was welcomed with enraptured applause by British gardeners, who scrambled to buy the brilliant new plant. In time, however, growing the perennial proved challenging. Many still believe it to be impossible. In Blue Heaven: Encounters With the Blue Poppyhttp://www.touchwoodeditions.com/summary_TWbooks/spring2009/blue_heaven.htm Terry not only tells the story of the enchanting Blue Poppy, but also shows how, given a suitable climate, a patient and persistent gardener can raise this most alluring of plants. Gorgeous photographs accompany the text throughout, illuminating this rare and precious flower. ISBN 978-1-894898-82-9

Praise for Blue Heaven

• "With wit and erudition, author Bill Terry examines the world of the fabled Himalayan Blue Poppy and its relatives. Ranging from the sloped of the high Himalayas through the gardens of contemporary poppy lovers, Terry - himself an accomplished meconopsis grower - also provides clear guidelines for the successful cultivation and propagation of these notoriously temperamental beauties. Buy buyer beware! Meconopsis obsession may ensue." Des Kennedy Author of An Ecology Of Enchantment: A Year In The Life Of A Garden.

• "An irresistable book. Bill Terry's ardent account of the fabled Blue Poppy is elegant, humorous, and bracingly practical - a master class in gardening, the record of a 40-year passion, a chronicle of other gardeners and plant hunters equally possessed. Author and subject are a match made in heaven. I loved the book all the way to the end." Elizabeth Hay
  Elizabeth Hay (novelist)
  Elizabeth Grace Hay is a Canadian novelist and short story writer.Her novel A Student of Weather was a finalist for the Giller Prize and won the CAA MOSAID Technologies Award for Fiction and the TORGI Award...
  
  Author of Late Nights On Air, Winner of the 2007 Scotiabank Giller Prize
  Scotiabank Giller Prize
  The Scotiabank Giller Prize, or Giller Prize, is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English the previous year, after an annual juried competition between publishers who submit entries...
  
  .

• "The history of the Blue Poppy is approached with enthusiasm and a sort of reverence. Terry's own stories about his journeys to China, Scotland and Quebec to muse and compare notes with other "Poppy People", are delightful... This gem of a book is bound to entice you to your own Blue Poppy quest." Mary Ann Moore Reviewed in More Island Living Magazine July/August 2009.

• "A stunning collection of images and stories telling the history of the enchanting Himalayan Blue Poppy, and showing how, given the right climate, a patient and persistent gardener can raise this alluring perennial plant" Cover feature and review in Books For Everybody Spring/Summer 2009