Poppy - 'Falling in Love'

The last 2 years I have been trialing a new Poppy (Papaver rhoeas) from seed called Falling in Love from Park Seed Co. The description is as follows.... "a bright large-flowered mixture of semi- and fully doubles in shades of red, carmine, crimson, scarlet, and rose.....plus coral, pink, and white in solid and bi-colored forms. This Dutch introduction offers rich, watercolor shades hard to find elsewhere in the garden. Cupped and rounded, the 3 inch blooms look like silk, and arise very heavily on plants 9 to 18 inches tall and 12 inches wide."

Here is a nice group of fully double coral colored ones.

This bicolor pink semi-double is pretty and refreshing.

A close up of a rose colored double form.

A single stem of a red and white bicolor, blooming amidst the other flowers.

Same flower as above, photographed from below with the summer sky as a backdrop.
(This is my Red, White and Blue photo for this year. Happy Fourth of July to everyone!)

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My conclusion about Falling in Love poppies? For me, they didn't really live up to their lofty description. Although I find them pretty, I prefer the old fashioned single Shirley Poppies I have grown for many years, for several reasons. They are taller, bear more and larger blooms, which hold on the plant longer and bloom over a longer period. I love their translucent , delicate, papery petals that just have more of a cottage look to me.... and, as whole, make a greater impact in the flower garden. And the best thing about Shirley poppies? They self sow so freely, a trait that I am fond of... which these didn't seem to do.

Sounds like I will need to do a post dedicated to the Shirley Poppy someday. :-)

White Pincushion Flower

• One of my favorite summer flowers is Scabiosa, also known as Pincushion Flower. I think the common name suits it very well, and is ever so much nicer sounding than Scabiosa, wouldn't you agree? :-) This year I winter sowed seeds for a White variety, which I have enjoyed very much. It has been blooming strong.....even into these cooler fall days. I took all the photos below on the same day. The flowers were in four different stages on the plant, all at the same time.

The tightly packed flower bud, which resembles a pincushion.

The partially unfolded flower. I love the contrast of the white and the greenish center.

The flower in full bloom! Note the slender stamens inside each fold . . . they look rather like pins.

The handsome prickly seedhead. . . . still looking rather like a pincushion, don't you think?


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Pincushion flowers can be either Annual or Perennial, and I suspect this variety (which I obtained from a seed trade ) is an Annual, so I will save some seed to plant next year.

Doubledecker Coneflower

An internet search yielded this brief history of Doubledecker Coneflower:
A German plantsman, Eugen Schleipfer found an Echinacea plant that looked very different from the others. After years of selection, a reliable seed strain with two tiered flowers resulted. A set of shorter petals rests on top of the cone while a "skirt" of longer, deep rose-pink petals emerge from the base of the cone. First year plants sometimes produce single flowers. From the second year forward, a high percentage of two tiered flowers appear with either a single or double set of petals. Occasionally, older plants produce single flowers.

I purchased this as a very small plant 3 years ago from a mail order company. It had only bloomed with single flowers the past two summers, so I was excited this year when I saw some pink flower petals beginning to sprout out of the center cone! I wanted to wait to photograph them until they were fully formed, but unfortunately by the time that happened the original flower was already beginning to brown, as you can see by the tips of the petals.

A single bloom, growing out of the original flower. They have a somewhat 'messy' look.

This top flower is double and almost dwarfs the original flower.....making it look a bit top heavy!

Less than half of the flowers on my plant exhibited the double flower characteristic, so it will be interesting to observe, next year and beyond....to see if a greater percentage of flowers will display this trait. I think perhaps this variety is still a little unstable, but 'Doppelganger' (it's German name) is an interesting plant, adding an unusual charm to the cottage garden.

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Fun Fact: The word "echinacea" comes from the Greek word "echinos" meaning "hedgehog", referring to the flower's spiky central cone.

Sign of Summer

Although by the calendar, it isn't officially summer yet.... a sure sign for me is the sighting of the first California Poppy! This one, in my bed of peas, was the first to bloom a couple of days ago. If you look closely, you can see the pea tendril wrapped around it's stem. They re-seed like crazy and come up everywhere, but I am happy to weed them out in order to save a few to enjoy all summer long. They are like sunshine in the garden, adding their brightness wherever they bloom!

My dear daughter used to love 'helping' the poppies bloom by pulling off their caps. (Okay, I admit I have done this, too....they are simply irresistible!)

This wonderful bi-color showed up in my garden last year. I saved the seed, but misplaced it and couldn't find it this year, so I hope it comes back again!

A photo from a couple of years ago..... CA poppy in front of hollyhock foilage.



The same photo as above, with Photoshop effects.
Even without the color you can see the elegance of form possessed by this humble wildflower!