Small property owners can add richness to their summer landscapes with meadows and natural gardens. All too often, however, despite the best of intentions, such plantings simply look rough and muddled. Can this situation be avoided?
Here are some practical and easy ways, using annual poppies, to keep pocket-sized meadows and natural-looking gardens from appearing chaotic:
- carefully think plantings through and sketch your ideas on paper, and
- then unify or bind the whole picture together by using one kind of plant or a group of plants.
Annual poppies are a good choice to use as this unifying factor. They serve stunningly in early to mid-summer landscapes, or continuously from a succession of sowings, in locations where the climate is cool. The colors of annual poppies extend from classic crimson to scarlet and red-orange, on to lavender, pink and white. With adequate preparation, there is no reason why you cannot have a wildflower meadow or natural-type garden brimming with a backdrop of native and naturalized wildflowers stippled and dappled with glowing poppies.
Seeds of annual poppies such as Papaver rhoeas and its close cousins such as Papaver rhoeas variety commutatum are not difficult to find. For example:
- Renee's Garden sells a cultivar called 'Legion of Honor' which according to the description is the classic crimson poppies beloved by Europeans for generations.
- Thompson-Morgan Seeds advertises Papaver commutatum 'Flanders' which they describe as sprinkling cornfields with its bright scarlet flowers. Ideal for creating a bright splash of colour in a sunny corner where little else will grow, or in the wild garden where it self seeds with ease.
- Clyde Robin Wildflower Seed sells a Shirley Poppy Collection which the catalog claims is such that it will make your yard come to life with shades of red, pink, fuchsia, and white.
Vermont garden designer and author Wayne Winterrowd writes, ...there is no garden picture that is not enhanced by its... (Papaver rhoeas, corn poppy)...fragile blossoms, at once vivid and ephemeral. The French painter Corot agreed with me, for it was his favorite flower, and dozens of his beautiful and brooding canvases were made magical by dots of scarlet.
Keeping Winterrowd's images in mind, here are some very effective options for using annual poppies as a unifying part of a natural garden:
- make uniform plantings of one or more of the three annual poppies;
- mix poppies together with summer annuals of contrasting color like calendula and bachelor-button; or
- dot beds of low-growing herbs with flecks of color from red poppies.
Watch for my next article describing examples of actual use of the above three options.
You may enjoy reading more about poppies and wildflower meadows in my previous articles:
- Poppies and Landscape Design
- Landscapes of Poppies
- Poppies and Landscapes of War
- Romantic or Realist - Establishing a Wildflower Lawn or Meadow
©
Text and photograph by Georgene A. Bramlage, July 15, 2006. Reproduction without permission prohibited
Georgene A. Bramlage - Suite 101 Landscaping Feature Writer and Topic Editor Free-lance Garden and Landscape Writer and Consultant
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