When I was a child, my grandmother had the most beautiful flowers. She had a fenced-in pen just beyond her back yard that had once been a chicken yard. As her neighborhood became more populated, the chickens had to go. In their place she grew flowers. She would take a mixture of seeds-California poppies, larkspur, sweet William, phlox, bachelor buttons, and sweet alyssum-and toss them out all over the pen. Those were her favorite flowers, and the mixture of colors was just breathtaking. I can remember sitting on the back-door step of my grandmother's house in the summer, and the reds, blues, and golds would actually shimmer in the heat. No mortal hand could paint a more beautiful picture.
No matter how many other flowers my grandmother planted, the poppies always seemed to dominate. The yellow-orange petals would reflect the sun and turn the field into blazing gold.
Even though the California poppy is native to grassy and open areas of the western United States, it has been transported all over the country, especially the south, and even to Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa.
Some Indian groups used the poppy as a source for food and medicine. The plant can be boiled or roasted to be eaten as a green. The flowers were rubbed in the hair to kill head lice. The root was used for toothaches, headaches, and sores. The pollen was a cosmetic. The poppy is a plant with sedative and analgesic qualities, but unlike the opium poppy, it is not addictive.
Poppies require full sun and good drainage, but they do not need particularly good soil. They do well in rock gardens, along road sides, and other disturbed areas. They love hot, dry weather, and they are easy to grow. Because the plants develop a deep tap root, they don't transplant well. So plant the seeds where you want them to grow.
There are many sub species of the poppy, and breeders have expanded the range of colors to include yellow, orange, white, pale yellow, pink, purple, red, and rose. The plants are bluish-green and grow only 12 to 18 inches tall. The blooms open during the day and close at night. On cloudy days, they may not open at all. Once the blossoms are pollinated, narrow, ribbed seed pods form. When they dry out and split, tiny black seeds are dispersed.
Gardeners have a choice of many beautiful varieties. The Oriental poppy has to grow two years before it blooms; then it blooms only a few weeks. However, the flowers are stunning, and they make outstanding borders. The Iceland poppy blooms from mid-summer through fall. The Flanders poppy originated from the wild poppies of Flanders Fields. The Flanders poppy was made famous by Moina Michael, who made the poppy a symbol of remembrance of soldiers who died in World War I.
