A gardener's life is never boring. Each day, each week, each month, each season and each year brings something new to the garden.
Poppies take center stage as 2003 is designated "The Year of the Poppy" by the National Garden Bureau. These common — yet fascinating — plants are certain to add color and excitement to your garden.
Poppies are probably the most popular wildflower in America, and they deserve a place in any garden. They add beauty to wildflower and meadow plantings, perennial borders, cutting gardens or mixed flower beds. With all their diversity, there is certain to be a place for them in your garden.
Few flowers show the color of the poppy. While most are familiar with the traditional orange Oriental poppy, the color choice is almost endless. Colors range from vibrant to subdued — from deepest crimson, bright orange and yellow to soft pink, dusky peach, rose, lilac and cream.
Poppies vary in height from 2- to 3-feet tall, although there are dwarf strains of the Iceland poppy that reach only 12 inches in height. Look for other variations as well — blooms may be single, double or semidouble, with amazing texture and size. Iceland poppies produces flowers up to seven inches across; the Shirley poppy bears single or double crepe-paper-like blooms edged with white; and field, or Flanders, poppies sport single, crimson flowers.
Many plants are members of the poppy family Papaveraceae. Those that bear the name poppy include California poppy (Eschscholzia), blue poppy (Meconopsis), plume poppy (Macleaya) and prickly poppy (Argemone). Those in the genus Papaver include most of the poppy species, including many annuals and perennials.
The annual poppy, P. rhoeas goes by a variety of common names, from corn or field poppy to Flanders poppy and Shirley poppy. The "corn" of corn poppy does not refer only to its habit of showing up in cornfields. "Corn" is Old English for seed coming from the Greek word "korn" for grain; the seed in this case refers to fields of grains like rye, wheat and oat.
Poppy seeds lie dormant in soil for years and germinate when the soil is disturbed. Flanders poppies feature the single, red flower that carpeted fields in Flanders. These flowers became famous during World War I when John McCrae, a Canadian soldier, wrote a poem about them commemorating the soldiers who had died.
In Flanders Fields, the poppies grow/Between the crosses, row on row
The words immortalized the flowers.
Flanders poppies grow 2- to 3-feet tall and bloom from late spring through summer with red, purple, lilac, white, salmon, peach, pink or orange flowers. Each has a distinctive dark blotch at the base of each petal.
In the late 1800s, the Reverend W. Wilkes, vicar of Shirley in England, discovered a new annual poppy growing in his garden. The flower had a narrow edge of white around each petal and no blotch. He continued to select from subsequent generations until he had poppies with single, tissue-paper-like petals and colors ranging from pale pink to lilac and mauve, as well as red.
These flowers, now known as Shirley poppies, have double and semi-double forms and picotee flowers with lighter or darker edges. They grow to up to 4 feet, and the flowers have a narrow white or tinted edge on each petal.
Iceland poppy, P. nudicaule, a perennial, is not actually from Iceland but from Asia. It undoubtedly cross-pollinated with a few of its closely related species, including P. radicatum, which is from Iceland. Iceland poppies are easy to grow from seed or from transplants and are best planted with pansies in the fall.
Other poppies include the perennial Alpine poppy (P. alpinum and other diminutive species), which fit beautifully in rock gardens. It grows 5- to 10-inches tall and blooms from late spring to summer with white, yellow or occasionally orange or red flowers. It does well along the Wasatch Front but not in the colder areas of Utah.
The perennial Oriental poppy, P. orientale, is usually grown from root divisions, not seeds. It grows 2- to 4-feet tall, blooms from late spring to midsummer and bears scarlet, salmon, pink, peach, white or rose blooms, usually with a black blotch at the base of the petals. The foliage dies back after flowering but begins to regrow in fall. It is hardy in all but the coldest areas of Utah. These poppies are drought tolerant and will grow and bloom with little or no supplemental irrigation.
Poppies as cultivated plants date back as far as 5,000 B.C. in present-day Iraq. Archaeological remains of poppies in Egyptian tombs date back 3,000 years, and myths about Greek and Roman gods mention poppies. Some even suppose the lilies of the field in the New Testament were poppies.
Poppies were important medicinal plants throughout Europe, Asia and North Africa. The flowers of the corn poppy contain rhoeadine, an alkaloid used in mild sedatives. Of course, poppies are infamous as a source of illicit drugs.
Plant poppy seeds as early as you can prepare the soil in the spring. Many varieties are also available as transplants from local nurseries. Select a site that receives at least six hours of direct sun daily. Poppies grow in almost any kind of soil with good drainage; waterlogged soils are one of the main reasons some perennial poppies fail to survive from one year to the next.
Pests or diseases seldom bother poppies. The best solution is prevention. Space plants so they have good air circulation and avoid overwatering. Aphids may attack young plants in bud. Wash them off with a hard spray of water from the garden hose or, in severe cases, use an insecticidal soap spray.
Listen to Larry Sagers on the KSL Radio "Greenhouse Show" Saturdays from 8 to 11 a.m.
Larry A. Sagers is the regional horticultural specialist, Utah State University Extension Service, Thanksgiving Point Office.