This Year's Blooming Poppies
My flower garden continues to produce many colorful and beautiful blooms.
This cutting garden has developed so well over the last few seasons. I really enjoy comparing its progress from year to year, and seeing where I need to add more plants to improve the display. Right now, there are gorgeous poppies blooming everywhere - those colorful tissue paper-like flowers that look stunning both in the garden and in the vase.
Enjoy these photos, and I hope you saw the story "Poppy Love" in the June issue of our magazine, "Living."
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- The name “poppy” refers to a large number of species in at least 12 different genera in the subfamily Papaveroideae, which is within the plant family Papaveraceae. They produce open single flowers gracefully located on long thin stems, sometimes fluffy with many petals and sometimes smooth.
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- My flower garden is brimming with poppies in a variety of colors and forms. Papaver grows mainly in the northern hemisphere, including within the Arctic Circle, with one species found in southern Africa.
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- Poppies are attractive, easy-to-grow herbaceous annual, biennial or short-lived perennial plants. This poppy has a long stem and a delicate, crisp white bloom.
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- The plants typically grow to about two feet in height forming colorful flowers during spring and into summer.
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- Flowers have four to six petals, many stamens forming a conspicuous whorl in the center of the flower and an ovary of two to many fused carpels.
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- The leaves almost look like weeds when first emerging from the soil. They are lobed or dissected, appearing lacy, frilly or fern-like.
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- One of the most familiar of all poppies is the Oriental poppy. This perennial garden plant is a common feature of northern gardens, with its feathery foliage and orange, red, or salmon flowers that bloom in June and July. The leaves disappear in summer as the plant goes dormant, but a new set of basal leaves emerges in the fall.
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- Poppies grow naturally in conditions of disturbed earth throughout Western Europe. The destruction brought by the Napoleonic wars of the early 19th Century transformed bare land into fields of red poppies, growing around the bodies of the fallen soldiers. In 1914, the fields of Northern France and Flanders were hit again as World War I raged through Europe. Once over, the poppy was one of the only plants to grow on the otherwise barren battlefields. Today, it remains a popular bloom and an enduring symbol of remembrance.
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- These poppies have delicate light pink petals with darker pink centers.
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- Poppies require very little care, whether they are sown from seed or planted when young – they just need full sun and well-drained soil. Though it varies from one type to the next, most poppies fare best in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 3 through 9.
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- Poppies can be planted as soon the ground becomes warm and soft in spring. If there’s a frost, poppies will survive and are also able to germinate in chilly weather. Poppies should receive at least six hours of sunshine a day, but in very warm locales, a little shade in the middle of the afternoon, when the sun is most intense, is ideal.
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- One tip – only water once per week during weeks that receive less than two inches of natural rainfall. And don’t splash any water on the foliage; moist leaves are more susceptible to pests and diseases.
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- This lavender bloom has both frilly and shaggy petals adding lots of texture to the garden.
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- This poppy is smaller, more dainty, and more tissue paper-like in appearance. The gray tones are a favorite.
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- One of the more unique poppies is this pompom variety with amazing double and semi-double flowers in a delicate lilac color. The large, frilly blooms are truly eye-catching.
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- Here’s another in a more salmon color. Though flowers are packed full of petals, their stems are strong enough to support the weight.
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- And here is another poppy in light pink with a bright green center.
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- Poppy flowers are attractive to pollinators such as bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.
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- Poppies come in a variety colors including purple, white, lilac, pink, yellow, orange, red, blue, and gray.
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- Never eat poppies. Most poppies are toxic to varying degrees. Virtually all species contain alkaloid compounds that are poisonous and can cause terrible side effects in both humans and pets.
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- The sepals usually drop off as the petals unfold. The ovary develops into a spherical capsule topped by a disk formed by the stigmas.
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- Here is the poppy seed pod capsule, which is what’s left on the stem once the flower blooms. When the seed heads turn brown, they are cut and the seeds inside are harvested and saved until they can be planted in the garden the following year. What are your favorite poppies?
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