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| Freshly opened in crinkled baby face stage |
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| Furry snake-head buds and wild woolly foliage |
This poppy is special for two simple reasons:
1. It was the very first thing I ever grew from seed
2. Have you seen the colour of it?!
Back in the day a couple of years ago when the green fingered bug first bit I decided to try growing something from seed and set off to the garden centre all eager and fresh faced to buy my first packet. Presented with the selection on offer, this was my first experience of how boring the range offered at the average garden centre is. Yawn. Talk about dull. Coral Reef Poppy was the only packet that jumped out at me because of the promised incredible colour of the poppy, and also because lets face it poppys are not exactly difficult to grow.
Annoyingly these perennials are the type where you sow them one year and they don’t flower till the next summer. Not exactly great when your a novice grower and you really want to see results fairly immediately in case patience and interest levels don't last two years, but luckily that first year I did get one solitary flower. I was as pleased as punch, so much so I took a fair few photos of it. When I presented it to my brother, chest swollen with pride he crushed me swiftly and with ease; "is that not a weed?"
Now planted in the garden for several years they make a good display. Before flowering I can't say they are attractive plants with large, furry, untidy leaves in a scrubby clump, but when the buds appear they remind me of furry snake heads slithering towards the sky. They are wonderfully tactile and I can be found fondling them before they come out.
The thing in life that I naturally gravitate to is colour, be that because its unusual, shockingly bright, unbelievable subtle, the combination etc. I also have a thing for texture being a textile designer but colour will always win out. This poppy is without doubt the most incredibly pretty colour ever. I would like to bottle it and have it as a shade of nail varnish or something. They are such a bright pastel shade of coral they stand out, going 'ting' from across the garden. Complete with darker pink veining at the base of the petals, they are in my eyes, perfect. Although the seed packet definitely shows them having tinted blue centres and mine are most definitely brown, But what does that matter??! Like all perfect things, these are terrible brief. From pushing themselves out of their furry jackets all crinkled like brand new babies' faces to the petals falling off in only a couple of days. Of course the heavens opened But boy are they worth it.
Now planted in the garden for several years they make a good display. Before flowering I can't say they are attractive plants with large, furry, untidy leaves in a scrubby clump, but when the buds appear they remind me of furry snake heads slithering towards the sky. They are wonderfully tactile and I can be found fondling them before they come out.
The thing in life that I naturally gravitate to is colour, be that because its unusual, shockingly bright, unbelievable subtle, the combination etc. I also have a thing for texture being a textile designer but colour will always win out. This poppy is without doubt the most incredibly pretty colour ever. I would like to bottle it and have it as a shade of nail varnish or something. They are such a bright pastel shade of coral they stand out, going 'ting' from across the garden. Complete with darker pink veining at the base of the petals, they are in my eyes, perfect. Although the seed packet definitely shows them having tinted blue centres and mine are most definitely brown, But what does that matter??! Like all perfect things, these are terrible brief. From pushing themselves out of their furry jackets all crinkled like brand new babies' faces to the petals falling off in only a couple of days. Of course the heavens opened But boy are they worth it.
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| Just look at that colour! Nobody can deny that is beautiful. Obviously this is before the sun fades it. |
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