Petal skirts of ruffled silk
Bold and fulsome, oriental poppies stand tall in the late spring borders, flaunting their swirling skirts and ink blot markings
ON A BRIGHT afternoon in late May, the blowsy, bowl-shaped blooms of a host of oriental poppies look up towards the sun. Held high above the other plants in the border, they teeter on stems that appear too elongated to support their weight and size. At the centre of the silk-like petals lies a superbly sculpted pepper pot seed pod surrounded by a ruff of black stamens, which sheds pollen onto frantic bees blackened by their load.
Oriental poppies are in bloom just as many other traditional stalwarts of the herbaceous border are at their prime, from late May to early July, so they have to compete with lupins, aquilegias, irises and peonies. But with huge flowers of 6in (15cm) across, on tall, thick stems, they are certainly up for the challenge, stealing the show when in bloom. Their silky petals expand from crumpled buds as the two sepals pop open and drop, the blooms unfolding to reveal their sumptuous beauty. These are some of the most dramatic of summer’s flowers, and their lush growth is a sign of what the season has in store.
The foliage is bold, or coarse, depending on one’s point of view, deeply slashed into lobes and covered in bristly hairs. The leaves are approximately 12-16in (30-41cm) long and create a dense clump from which the flower stems emerge. These are unbranched, bearing a single, large flower, with a few leaves on the lower part. Stems can grow up to 4ft (1.2m) tall, but are often considerably smaller. The flowers typically have four petals, but a few varieties are double, and a large number have frilly petals. Because of the mixed ancestry of the cultivars, many have a cluster of several bracts just below the flowers.
Poppies are among the most recognisable of all flowers and include popular annuals, biennials and perennials. The oriental
A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP
The poppy’s genus name of papaver is thought to refer to the sound made when chewing the seeds. The seeds of opium poppies were chewed by ancient peoples to induce sleep and were also given to children. They were added to porridge, called ‘pap’, as a soporific. Poppy seeds were also used by the Romans and the Egyptians to flavour and decorate bread. poppies are the best-known of the perennials. In common with most poppies, they have little fragrance to speak of, relying on their bold colours to attract pollinators: although they offer little nectar, their large and prolific stamens shower bees and other insects with valuable pollen. Bees do not see the flowers of these plants in the same way humans do; instead, they are attracted by the ultraviolet light reflected in their silky sheen.
Colour development
The bright colour palette of the many cultivars is hard to resist, but hardly a surprise when considering the bold flowers of their wild parents: the dazzling scarlet Papaver orientale and the enormous red P. bracteatum. Native to much of Turkey, the Caucasus and north-western Iran, they are found growing in meadows and open forest glades, always in sun. The main difference between the two species is that the flowers of P. bracteatum have a cluster of small leaves, or bracts, immediately below the flowers, and it tends to be a slightly bigger and more robust plant. Papaver orientale was named in 1753 and was certainly in cultivation in Britain by that time, whereas P. bracteatum arrived later and was described in 1821.
The plants were valued for their flowers, but were not much developed until the early 20th century. The first big break came in 1906 at Perry’s nursery in Enfield, Middlesex, when Amos Perry found a plant with a new colour in a row of seedlings. Unlike the usual bright red, this plant had pink blooms. He named it ‘Mrs Perry’, after his wife. Spurred on by his success, he tried, in vain, to produce more colours. But it was a customer who complained that his ‘Mrs Perry’ had sported to white and ruined his border colour scheme who held the key to more new poppies. The customer returned the unwanted white plant for a replacement, resulting in Perry’s nursery turning oriental poppies into a speciality, and, between the First and Second World Wars, it was the leading supplier of these plants.
An important development was the production of the ‘Super Poppy Series’, developed by James de Welt in California by crossing the oriental poppy with other perennial and annual species. The aim was to make the plants tougher, better able to withstand hot weather, and to make the flowers last longer. In the UK, Sandy Worth, owner of Water Meadow Nursery and Herb Farm, and holder of the National Plant Collection of Papaver orientale, developed this work and has introduced new cultivars, including ‘The Falklands’ and ‘Pink Panda’.
The most lauded of all recent poppies is ‘Patty’s Plum’: a chance seedling discovered on the compost pile by Patricia Murrow in Somerset. The unusual, wine-purple colour immediately made it the ‘must-have’ poppy, and it remains incredibly popular. In the trade, the older cultivars are still most common, but newer kinds are gradually becoming available.
“Through the dancing poppies stole A breeze, most softly lulling to my soul”
John Keats, ‘Endymion’
Oriental poppies vary in height and habit. The smallest are 24in (61cm) high when in flower. Most have foliage that reaches 16in (41cm) in height at flowering time. Among the shortest is the seed strain Pizzicato Group, which flowers at 24in (61cm) and includes all the usual colours. Others will attain a height of 39in (99cm) when in bloom, although the majority reach 32in (81cm). They are big, leafy plants and will be 24in (61cm) across after a few years. They vary in habit, and some send up suckers to rapidly extend the clump. The flower stems often bend under the weight of the huge blooms, so the flowers can actually extend over a diameter of at least 4ft (1.2m) from a mature plant.
Planting to thrive
Oriental poppies are completely hardy. They are comfortable in most soils, provided they are not waterlogged, and grow well in dry soils and on chalk. They prefer a sunny site, and although they will grow in borders where it is shady for up to half the day, they will not bloom as profusely, and the flower stems will be stretched and prone to flopping when the plant is in bloom.
Like most herbaceous plants, oriental poppies are best planted in spring or autumn. They are often sold as bare-root plants, and these can be planted in the border, with the crowns, from where the shoots arise, just below the surface. However, if the plants are small, with one or two shoots, it may be safer to pot them on arrival and plant them out later to protect them from slugs and snails.
They can also be bought in pots, often in bud, in the summer, but if planting when they are in growth, it is important to keep plants watered well as they settle in. It should not be a cause for alarm when the foliage deteriorates in summer, as this is perfectly normal for these plants, but they should still be kept moist. It is also vital to deadhead the plants so they make new side shoots at the base, rather than trying to set seeds and die.
If planting more than one poppy of each variety, they should be placed 24in-36in (61-91cm) apart.
Like many plants from areas with dry summers, oriental poppies have evolved to cope with summer drought and become almost dormant after flowering, leading to the foliage of all but the ‘Super Poppy Series’ deteriorating badly. As a result, these
plants are not the best choice for containers. They can be planted in large, deep pots filled with John Innes No. 3 compost, but the pots will ideally need to be moved to a less obvious spot once the flowers have finished.
Care and maintenance
In spring, it is recommended to check around clumps closely, removing any slugs or snails hiding in the foliage. The addition of a high-potash fertiliser, such as a rose feed, will also be beneficial.
The flowers, especially of tall cultivars, are prone to flopping, most often in wet and windy weather. Once they topple, they bend within hours, so are difficult to stake. The snaking stems, holding flowers at different heights, are strangely appealing but to prevent it happening, three or four canes, of approximately 32in (81cm), depending on the cultivar, can be inserted around the crown, between the leaves, and a triangle formed of a grid of twine as soon as the buds begin to show. This will help to support the stems as they grow.
Each flower should last a week, some fading as they age, and each plant should remain in bloom for several weeks. The new ‘Super Poppy Series’ has a longer flowering period, with sporadic blooms appearing over several months. Deadheading does not really extend the flowering period of these plants, since, with the exception of the ‘Super Poppy Series’, they become dormant in August. This is the time to cut back the plants, removing the old flower stems and cutting back the foliage to approximately 4in (10cm) above the ground. As they will naturally produce more foliage within a month or so, it is also a good time to mulch around the plants and feed with a general fertiliser to encourage strong growth before autumn.
Mildew often affects the foliage after flowering, but this should not be a serious problem if the plants are cut back as recommended. They are largely free from pests.
Propagation
Oriental poppies can be grown from seed and, sown in spring, should flower the following year. Seed provides a way to produce many plants cheaply, but, because they will not be identical to the parent, it is taking a risk as to what will emerge. In theory, poppies may self-seed in the garden, but, because it is best to deadhead the plants, cutting them back to the base, after flowering, it is unlikely.
The best way to propagate them is by dividing clumps, so the young plants are identical to the parents. This is best done in autumn, but spring division should also be successful. Different cultivars have varying habits, and some form dense clumps, while others send out suckering shoots some distance from the main plant, which makes their removal and replanting easy. Better still is to take root cuttings. This unfamiliar method of propagation is actually easy to do. In fact, if a clump is dug up from the border and some deep roots left behind, new shoots might even sprout from these.
To take a root cutting, dormant plants are dug up in autumn or winter and the thickest straight roots cut off. Ideally, these roots should be the thickness of a pencil. The clump is then replanted. Keeping them the right way up, the roots are cut into sections, with a horizontal cut made in the top of the section and the lower cut at an angle so each piece is 2-3in (5-8cm) long. They are then inserted into pots of gritty compost, so that the top of the cutting is at the compost surface, then covered with ¼in (6mm) of sand. Kept moist and placed in a cool or cold greenhouse or cold frame, shoots will appear in spring, and the plants will bloom the following year.
While oriental poppies will not fill the borders with colour all summer long or impart a sweet fragrance in the garden, they more than make up for this with their sheer explosions of colour, bringing excitement to the garden for a few weeks at that wonderful time of year when the days are at their longest and sunniest. Like all the best things in life, they will not last forever, but the joy they bring makes the wait worthwhile.