Description
Best in drifts, and so easy to grow, just plant when the spring weather is still cool, and frost is possible. (If you follow Erin at Floret these are one of her featured poppies also) Next to breadseed poppies, Shirley poppies are the easiest to grow. One plant will produce flower heads for up to 6 glorious weeks, and as each blossom fades it leaves behind the most beautiful miniature seed pods that make amazing additions to boutonnieres and dried creations.
Annual, Height: 24-30”, full sun, Days to maturity: 55-65 days, Plant spacing: 9-12”, 1.5-2′ h. Pinch: not necessary
Shirley poppies resent transplanting. Direct sow into the garden after all danger of frost has passed. Can be started indoors, just take care when planting out not to disturb the roots too much.
Harvesting/Vase Life:
The flowers are short lived, lasting 3-4 days if stem ends are seared 7-10 seconds. Perfect for personal use or event work. Harvest when flowers are just opening.
Interesting lore: In 1880 the Reverend William Wilks discovered a single flower of Papaver rhoeas with a white edge to the petal. He later picked the seed capsule and spent 20 years breeding soft-coloured strains – white, pink, yellow and orange – some with picotees (dark edges). These he named ‘Shirley’ after his Surrey parish. Cornfield poppy, Papaver rhoeas, carpeted the bomb-blasted battlefields of Flanders and France in a blaze of scarlet. These (Mother of Pearl) forms were selected after the Second World War by artist and gardener Sir Cedric Morris and known collectively as ‘Mother of Pearl’. Morris tramped the Suffolk countryside looking not for scarlets but for soft, smoky tints like the pink of raspberry fool, the blue-grey of a woodpigeon’s wing and the gentle purple of lilac.
Approx seeds per packet: 100
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