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Perennial
Poppies for Your Garden
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Oriental Poppies
are one of the most brilliant herbaceous
perennials to grace the early summer garden.
The flowers, which appear to be made of
crepe paper, can be 6 inches across, on
stems usually 2 1/2-3 ft high, although
some varieties ('Peter Pan', 'Watermelon')
are more compact. The hairy, fern-like leaves
turn brown in early summer and disappear
completely, then return again in fall. It's
a good idea to place Oriental Poppies behind
large perennials such as Siberian Iris or
herbaceous Peonies, which will camouflage
the hole the Poppies
leave in the summer border. Or plant annuals
such as Nicotiana or Cosmos nearby, which
can fill the opening without competing for
root room.
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Plant in full sun (7-8 hrs. or more) in
good, free-draining soil; a pH of 6.5-7.0
is ideal. Prepare soil to a depth of 2 ft.
and space plants 15-18 in apart. Spread
the roots down and out, covering the crown
with 3 inches of soil—deeper than you
would plant most perennials. Apply winter
protection after there is an inch of frost
in the soil; that can be December here in
Connecticut. Winter protection does not
mean bark mulch; rather use evergreen boughs
or pine needles, a loose organic material
that will not compact and hold excessive
moisture. This winter protection keeps the
soil frozen during the typical freeze-thaw
cycles of winter, and helps prevent newly-planted
plants from being heaved out of the ground.
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Some of our Favorite Poppies:
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Mixed
Oriental Poppy
Six inch ruffled flowers atop 2-4' stems
create dramatic beauty late spring to early
summer. Mixed Oriental Poppies are a vibrant
mix of red, pink, orange, purple or white.
Space 18-24".
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Himalayan
Blue Poppy
The sky blue color of these poppies will have
your neighbors asking ‘Where did you
get those flowers?”! Nodding, 2”
blooms on slender 3-4’ stems have characteristic
crinkly texture and showy gold centers. But
unlike most poppies, these bloom in late summer
and thrive in shade! Space plants 12-18”
apart.
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Poppy Defined:
A poppy
is an annual, biennial, or perennial plant of
the Family Papaveraceae, typically with showy
flowers borne one per stem, native mainly to the
Northern hemisphere and often grown for ornament,
opium or food. 15–100 cm high, it yields
a milky sap (latex) and bears large lobed or divided
leaves and white, pink, orange, or red flowers,
sometimes with a dark centre, with 4–6 petals
around a whorl of stamens. The fruit is a capsule
with pores through which the seeds are dispersed.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Ranunculales
Family: Papaveraceae
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PROBLEMS: Papaver orientale is rarely
troubled by insects or diseases except during
periods of protracted wet weather, when plants
are sometimes blackened by a blight, which can
be controlled with fungicide. P. orientale is
quite cold hardy, but is not suited to the hot,
humid summers and clay soil of the deep South.
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