Poppies for Princes

I'm a little bit of an accidental gardener: I don't get too upset if my plants aren't successful, but it always charms me when they take off, as if my watering and nurture played no part. I don't try too hard, but my patience with plants is infinite, until they have been pretty clearly dead for a few months.


I chucked these California poppy seeds into a pot, along with some lupine, inspired by the hillsides around Gorman a few years back, when they erupted in splashes of purple and orange and mustard yellow. This year the poppies are in and blooming, as you can see. I've learned something from potted poppies I never would have known from afternoons spent poppy spotting on hillsides: Poppies are diurnal. At night they roll up their petals.


They also take fabulous shapes after their blooming phase is over. I'm not sure when we get to the spot where the Wicked Witch of the West cackles "Poppies, poppies!" I'll let you know.