Note 10: Oriental poppies - ephemeral visitors to the early summer border
For me the appearance of oriental poppies always signifies the start of our meteorological summer. Spanning the end of May and the start of June their arrival always reminds me that warm, long days lie ahead and borders will start to reach their peak over the next eight weeks or so. Traditionally coming in bright, letterbox-red they are one of the earliest flowers to appear, holding their large blooms up to a metre above the ground with bristly stems arising from a rosette of equally bristly leaves.
Their presence in the garden can be fleeting, and like mayflies in the local river their presence is just as ephemeral. The delicate gossamer petals very quickly fall victim to heavy showers and high winds, with a slight consolation of attractive seed heads. It's often good at this stage to accept their failings and cut them to the ground, leaves and all. A gentle seaweed feed and some water should see them sending up a fresh mound of foliage within a fortnight. Many books suggest a second flush of flowers will follow, though I’ve yet to experience this. I’m going to act quickly this year in the hope that the books, for once, are correct.
If bright reds are not your first choice there are other options and perhaps one of the the best is ‘Patty’s Plum’. With its distinctive ruffled petals in a slightly washed out plum colour there’s no doubt that this particular introduction has stolen the crown from the more traditional reds. ‘Ruffled Patty’, despite sharing the name, bears little in common but is an attractive plant nonetheless, with pink, deeply divided petals. This division can also be seen in ‘Turkenlouis’, one I have in my garden, which displays the traditional bright red flowers and petals that appear to have been attacked with pinking shears. ‘Royal Chocolate Distinction’, a beautiful looking flower, comes in a rich dark maroon but is susceptible to fading in bright sunny spots. For fans of white flowers, ‘Snow Goose’ provides stunning saucer sized flowers with a wonderful central eye of dark purple, while ‘White Ruffles’ has been described as one of the best whites and like ‘Ruffled Patty’ has intriguing cut or serrated petals and is a manageable 2 feet in height.
Many of the other oriental poppies are quite tall and with their large flowers can become top heavy when wet making staking a necessity. I try to have the stakes in place as soon as the leafy rosette is formed towards the end of April. This issue has been dealt with to some extent by the plant breeders who have introduced dwarf low growing forms such as ‘Little Patty Plum’, ‘Baby Kiss’ in a soft pink, ‘Dwarf Allegro’ in orange/red, and ‘Little Candyfloss’ in soft candy-pink. ‘Goliath’, despite its name, is low growing but boasts huge flowers on short stems. Nothing can compare in my opinion, however, to the giants and it’s here that I’d turn to ‘Beauty of Livermere’, ‘Brilliant’ or ‘Waltzing Elizabeth’. Just don’t forget to stake.
