Corn Poppy

2023 Author: Hannah Pearcy | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-08-25 03:36

Poppy mainly settles on the edges of dirt roads and fields. As poppies, he delights nature-loving hikers there. Red is the prime discipline of silky poppy flowers, but the variety of poppies goes far beyond the well-known varieties of corn poppy and opium poppy: poppy is the highlight in the summer bed!

Apparently overnight, the plump, bristly buds rise up to the sky and reveal wrinkled petals that, despite their silky-soft appearance, display a tremendous display of colors. When the corn poppy decorates the fields, fields and meadows with its bright red, the time has finally come again: summer is here! Almost as well known as the wild poppy is its relative, the annual poppy (Papaver somniferum). It is one of the oldest cultivated plants in Europe and originally comes from the Near East. However, it is not only used as a nutritious baked poppy, but also as a medicine and intoxicant, because opium can be extracted from its milk juice. Therefore, only the low-morphine varieties 'Mieszko' and the winter poppy 'Zeno Morphex' may be grown at the moment, after written approval by the Federal Opium Agency. However, if you still want to admire the color effect of poppies in your own garden, you have a large selection of annual and multi-year poppy species.

The symbol of summer: red poppies

In addition to the annual poppy, which can be easily sown on the spot, there are numerous types of herbaceous poppies. A particularly beautiful and striking ornament in the garden is the Turkish poppy Papaver orientale, which blooms in numerous colors and shapes from May to June and can grow up to 1 m high. A specialty is the bright orange-red cultivation 'Türkenlouis' with fringed edges, but also the softly folded flowers of 'Karine' in delicate pink or the crumpled petals of the 'Marlene' variety with their deep burgundy red set attractive accents in the bed. The English breed 'Perry's White' blooms in subtle white with black spots on the flower base and the variety 'Patty's Plum' in an unusual purple violet. The two- and multi-year Icelandic poppy Papaver nudicaule blooms from May to September in numerous shades of white and yellow to shades of red and orange. As a half-height poppy, it is particularly suitable for the beet border or rock garden. The Alpine poppy Papaver alpinum grows even smaller: it blooms from June to August in white, yellow and sunny orange.

Garden design

planting poppies

If you have poppies in your garden, you can easily multiply the poppies

Corn poppy sets color highlights

So that the summer messengers thrive in your own garden, you should give them a very sunny spot in a loose, nutrient-rich soil. Poppy, however, does not like waterlogging. If necessary, you can make the soil permeable with sand or grit and use a wire basket around the root to protect against voles. Suitable partners in the bed are, for example, lavender (Lavendula), the perennial sage 'Blue Queen', catnip (Nepeta) or the splendid cranesbill (Geranium pratense), which have a nice color contrast to red poppy varieties. Sonnenhut (Rudbeckia), the “Perennial of the Year 2013” spurge (Euphorbia) or ornamental grasses go well with it. Late summer bloomers such as autumn asters (Aster) or Japanese anemones (Anemone hupehensis) hide the gaps left by the poppies after they have faded:Then it pulls in its leaves and only forms fresh leaves again in autumn.

Photo: Fotolia