Eschcholzia californica, or "California poppy."
You may recall that last year, I planted several varieties of poppies: oriental (failed), "Pizzicato" (failed), "Falling in Love" (epic fail, of course), Icelandic poppy (limited success) and Flanders poppies (wild success, 4000 seeds producing massive amounts of flower that produced massive amounts of seeds).
This year, I decided to be reasonable and seed only one packet of poppies, and I picked these, Eschcholzia californica var. "Appleblossom".
Then I waited.
Then poppy flowerbuds appeared.
Then they opened... and every last one was a Flanders poppy. Well, not for nothing that it's actually a weed in Europe.
So, I spent the summer watching for Flanders poppies and uprooting them as soon as they showed their colours, and hopefully before they could shed seeds.
And then, finally, September 4, 11 days before the average first frost, I have a California poppy. And it's every bit as pretty as I had hoped... Now I just have to produce a hundred more, two months earlier, and everything will be copacetic. Hopefully they're like flax and they'll take care of themselves once they get going.
2 comments:
Mongoose .. i am completely enchanted with your poppy. could you spare a couple seeds ?
Sorry, I didn't collect any seeds. I bought them from Thompson & Morgan, they're under Eschcholzia var. "Appleblossom". They really are very pretty.
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