My spring love affair with poppies
I have so many favorite spring flowers - after a winter of greenery and berries every flower is new and fun and my favorite for a day or a week as it takes center stage for a bit. But the flowers I keep coming back to are poppies.
There are so many kids of beauty in the poppy world - the native Californian ones we all know and love, some strange and fascinating ones I have started from seed and still enjoy seeing in their uniqueness (Papaver rupifragum 'Flore Pleno'and Papaver triniifolium - both available from Jelitto seeds in Germany), but my favorites are Iceland poppies and the native Matilija poppy with its huge fried egg flowers.
Unlike so many poppies out there, Iceland poppies are excellent as a cut flower. They last upward of 5 days in a vase (give their stems 10 seconds in boiling water before plopping them in a bucket - this helps them keep their petals a couple days longer). I always start them from seed in July, then transplant the small plants into the garden in late September or early October. They will be blooming a bit in January and February but start putting on their crazy productive show in the beginning of March and continue through May. Technically they are a perennial, but they always peter out in the hot early summer weather so I let them go to the compost pile and start afresh for the next spring.
Favorite varieties to look up: “Pastel Meadows” available from Uprising Seeds and “Champagne Bubbles” - very available online but I always like Johnny’s Seeds - reliable and top quality.
Matilija poppies just harvested from my garden
Favorite spring poppy bouquet this year.
Poppy detail from Sophia and Aaron’s rehearsal dinner at Jumbos restaurant in Philo.
Now for my second poppy love- the fried eggs of the flower world, Matilija poppies. These are native to California and are probably one of the most showy natives I know - grey green foliage grows tall each spring (most people cut these poppy stalks back in the winter, but you don’t have to) and in early June they start to bloom - unfurling gorgeous big white flowers with golden centers.
Bees love them, I always feel bad stealing their prize young blooms, but those are the flowers that last the best in the vase. Cut them early in the morning, pick just opened flowers, and they last a good number of days. In early June they are one of the only large flowers in the garden, so I do use them as a focal flower where I can - really they give a feeling of abundance and the coming of summer like nothing else. The day the first Matilija poppy opens always bears notice!
Growing these poppies can be tricky - they are hard to get established and don’t like to be transplanted (if you have a choice get a gallon pot instead of a five gallon pot at a nursery), but once they get established they spread quite robustly - so plant them where they can move a bit. You will be rewarded with a sea of glorious white and golden blooms!
Spur of the moment poppy arrangement on my porch.
Wedding reception flowers - simple an cheerful poppies and chamomile at The Boonville Hotel. Photo credit J&L photography
