Where can annuals like poppies (Papaver spp.) fit into garden landscapes? Wayne Winterrowd, a Vermont garden designer and plantsman, writes in his book Annuals for Connoisseurs about the value of simplifying garden designs. Plantings of annuals, he writes, often vivid of color as they are, benefit from the generous use of a single species.
Allan Armitage, Atlanta, GA plantsman and author, states in Armitage's Manual of Annuals, Biennials and Half-Hardy Perennials that there are about forty known species of Papaver. Only three as a rule grow as garden annuals and one, Papaver orientale, is the perennial poppy most seen in North American gardens.
Plant collectors like Winterrowd and Armitage delight in finding and growing additional beguiling species.of different plants. However, Armitage judges his zone 7 Athens, GA garden as intolerably warm to all but a few kinds of poppies. He writes that My poppy stage of life was brief: I managed to try half a dozen or so of the fanciful species, but they kept dying on me...
On the other hand Winterrowd, with his cool zone 4 garden North Hill, writes in Annuals for Connoisseurs and A Year at North Hill of the sturdy persistence of poppies in August that he and his partner Joe Eck almost take for granted. He explains by describing how they
- draw out the bloom season for Papaver rhoeas by repeat sowings of fresh seed;
- mix Papaver commutatum in beds with P. rhoeas and P. somniferum; and
- combine black lettuce poppies (a strain of P. somniferum), with lavender and mauve Phlox in August.
Because Winterrowd and Eck like to experiment, there are always some kinds of new annual plants, as well as Papaver spp. and plant combinations to discover during the North Hill Garden open days.
Here are descriptions and suggestions about growing the three most commonly known annual poppies. They are all annuals but, sometimes in a suitable microclimate, live several seasons as short-lived perennials. All self-sow vigorously when seed capsules mature, dry and scatter their seeds.
- Papaver somiferum, the opium, breadseed or lettuce poppy, is a native of Greece and western Asia. It is the oldest poppy in cultivation. Flower forms differ from single to double, and color varies from scarlet-red to mauve, pink and white. Plants are short-lived perennials that may overwinter in warm temperatures. Sow viable seeds in the autumn because they need winter chilling. Note well: Poppy seeds - eaten on bread, bagels, rolls - cause positive test results for opiates.
- Papaver nudicaule, the Iceland poppy, comes from cold subarctic regions and cannot tolerate the hot summers in most of the U.S. There are many Iceland poppy cultivars in a myriad of colors (except blue) and heights up to 24 inches. Like P. somniferum seeds, sow those of Iceland poppy in the autumn because they require a chilling period. These poppies will also be short-lived perennials in cool northern gardens. Pull plants as they begin to look dreadful - late April to early May in southern gardens, late May to early June in northern ones.
- Papaver rhoeas, the corn poppy or Flanders poppy, comes from Asia and Europe. This is the poppy immortalized in John McCrae's poem In Flanders Field and in Moina Michael's campaign to make the corn poppy be known as the Veteran's poppy. This is also the poppy species from which the Reverend W. Wilks of Shirley, England began in 1880 to painstakingly select flowers of the form now known as the Shirley poppy.
The brilliant 3 to 4 inch flowers of the corn poppy open on nodding stems 11/2 to 2 feet above finely cut foliage. Sow seeds as early in the spring as soil is workable or in the autumn, directly where you want them to bloom. The plants are frost-hardy so there is no need to worry about winter snow or late spring frosts.
This article is the second in a series about Papaver spp. (poppies) and other members of the Papaveraceae (poppy plant family). The first in the series is Poppies and Landscapes of War which describes some 20th century poppy lore. Suggestions for using annual poppies in landscape design are presented in the next article.
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Text and photograph by Georgene A. Bramlage, May 2006. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.
The copyright of the article Landscapes of Poppies in Landscaping is owned by Georgene A. Bramlage. Permission to republish Landscapes of Poppies in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
