PAPAVER – Poppy
( Papaver , the quondam Romance name )
Why should we extol the Poppy ? Why note It was the favorite of the old garden ; it is the same choice heyday in the newest garden today . Dancing upon long , wiry stems , the individual blooms remind us of hoop - half-slip of silk . The doubles also delight us , as we watch them open day by daytime pouring forth a great mass of petalage as they break from their tight buds . The people of colour are exactly the tints most of us admire , and if there be any one of these colors we do not like , we can take others , for most of our Poppies are sold under diversity name .
There are two clear-cut types of annual poppy : the Shirley is a mannequin of the Corn Poppy , recently know as the Flanders Field Poppy . The Ranunculus - flowered sorts are twofold varieties of the Shirley type.(Papaver rhoeas.)The halt are slender and hairy ; the flowers are unmarried or semi - double and seem to be made of crinkled silk of the sheerest grain ; the pepper - box seed capsule are small but filled with cum .
The stems of the Opium Poppy , Papaver somniferum , are unruffled , glaucous , and thick than those of the Shirley ; the plants are taller ; the heyday are great , unmarried , or completely double , and sometimes the petal are much fringed ; and the seed capsules are large . Peony - blossom , Carnation - flowered and Tulip - flower are some of the name use to the various varieties of the Opium Poppy .
Where to Plant . Of naturally , Poppies are first-class in beds by themselves or inseminate in the border , where some other flower has failed . Poppies are like good friends in the garden : they are not simple callers , nor guests who let down us .
Some individual trust that Poppies are not skilful cut flowers . Even a poet has written ,
For pleasures are like Poppies spread ;
You tear the flower , its salad days is disgorge .
But the poet did not screw that if he had pluck the Poppy in bud just before it had shed its green calyx , it would have endure well in water system . poppy are exquisite slashed flowers when cut properly .
Opium is obtained from the juice of the Poppy which coagulates upon the stem when they are injured . harvest home of opium takes lieu about the centre of March . At the turn of the 20th Century , fresh opium was sold to merchants at the rate of fourteen Egyptian ounces to the rottle ( rottle equals twelve English ounces ) . The merchants shape it into rotund disks , each count from two to three gramme . These disc are brushed with the egg white of an egg to represent a good appearance . ironical , pure opium is black - red , resembling cooked coffee .
On offend it shows a diffuse , compact shift . It is often adulterated with lentil flour or meld with “ mor higasi , ” a gum from Hedjaz . Regarding Flanders ’ Poppy , the following note appeared inGardening Illustrated(Eng . )
There can be little doubt that the variety isPapaver rhoeas , which , according to Loudon , was educate along with P.somniferumin Flanders and Germany for their semen , which are bruised for an vegetable oil and in cooking as a backup for that of Olives . The reason it was chosen for Remembrance Day was , possibly , from the fact that , as the two Scottish Moderators , Dr. Brown and Sir George Adam Smith , were riding together behind the business line , and as the Lord’s Day sank westward in a glory of color , lighting up the stretches of Poppy flowers , Sir George , point to the Poppies , said to Dr. Brown , “ Without peeling of blood is no remission . ”-Heb . ix . , 22 . Even in wartime it made the Autumn glorious , and covered with its flame of color all the scars which warfare had made in the landscape and where so many intrepid vernal lives were laid away in the earth . It seemed , that Autumn day , as if their young life had burst its prison walls and poured in a flood of scarlet on the face of the estate .
Some lecturer may want to know the account of Shirley Poppies , as it shows what may be done by patient work and lotion . Reverend W. Wilkes , the secretarial assistant of the Royal Horticultural Society , first discovered in a dapple of the unwashed theatre of operations Poppy in his garden , one with a thin edge of white and with yellow-bellied stamens . commonly the star stamen are black or very dark and the dark pollen muss and disfigure the flower when it ripen .
He saved the seed of this Poppy , planted it , secure a identification number of plants with the white edge more pronounced and with the yellow stamen . hold open from these type and throw away the disastrous - focus on plants he develop the present Shirley Poppy with its delicate satiny pinks and roses and even mauve and lavender shadowiness and all with the light centers . It expect a number of years and careful selection before the dark - stamened variety was eliminated and the strain fixed , but now a packet of Shirley Poppy germ comes true .
GENERAL . Poppies are super stout annual so that the germ may be sow in the Fall , in the Winter upon the snow , in the other Spring , or in the Summer to protract the time of year of bloom . However , the source develop best in cool soil .
As Poppy seed is very fine , it must be seed lightly . This is best accomplished by mixing Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin with it . After sowing , it is best not to place dirt over the seeds , but to cover the bottom with a cloth or with grass clippings . The app may be withdraw as soon as the seed has germinated , but until then it shades the seed and keeps it from dry out out .
Thin the plant to bear 6 to 8 inches apart . The seedling do not transfer promptly . poppy will flower for a short clip only if the seed pod are allow to develop .
selective information on 50 + annual flowers
