Re: Rain > poppies

My neighbors (a worthy, fine pair of fanatical gardeners!) grow poppies
that sound amazingly similar to this...I'll have to see if I can get a
good picture to post. They are in full and lovely bloom right now.



Melody 
Hills, IA  zone 5



 --- On Mon 05/23, Chapel Ridge Wal Mart National Hearing Center < 4042N15@nationalhearing.com > wrote:
From: Chapel Ridge Wal Mart National Hearing Center [mailto: 4042N15@nationalhearing.com]
To: gardenchat@hort.net
Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 17:18:23 -0600
Subject: Re: [CHAT] Rain  > poppies

Auralie,<br>Here's the article. My memory must have embellished the part
about<br>immigrants bringing it over. But then, it would follow from
what he writes.<br>I tried to find a photo on the internet, but there
wasn't much. I found one<br>similar on a nifty.com site, but it's not
quite the same as the one in the<br>article. The article pic shows dark
stamens. The site I found shows gold<br>stamens - also lighter color
petals and not as many petals. If you'd like<br>to see the picture from
the article, let me know and I will scan and send to<br>you
later.<br><br>A Poppy's Roots<br>Field Notes<br>Oklahoma<br>by Russell
Studebaker<br>Horticulture (date not known)<br><br>Starting out from
Mexico in 1541, the Spanish conquistador Francisco<br>Coronado searched
in vain for fabled gold on the plains of Texas and Kansa<br>near
Wichita. A few centuries later, and not far from Wichita,
I<br>rediscovered a plant that seems to be almost as rare as gold, at
least in<br>the nursery

trade. Traveling through Winfield, KS in the 1970s, I noticed
a<br>traffic island in which there grew magnificent double orange
poppies that<br>were as desirable to me as gold was to
Coronado.<br><br>Wanting to expand the species range of this beautiful
plant, I gathered<br>seeds and grew them in Tulsa. Through the ensuing
years, I saw this poppy<br>only rarely in other gardens, where their
owners simply called it "double<br>orange poppy'. Years passed, and I
found it growing also in Victorian<br>cottage gardens in Eureka Springs,
AR, and - surprisingly, in my own<br>neighborhood. Emulating Coronado's
extensive quest, I determined to learn<br>its proper name.<br><br>It
definitely grew from an oriental poppy; for one thing it was more
prone<br>to increase by runners, producing nice clumps. Then in late
summer it would<br>go dormant, and reappear in early spring. I soon
realized that I would need<br>help to identify it, so I made a color
photo of the blooming plant on

the<br>top portion of a page, and on the bottom portion of the page I
wrote its<br>description and my observations of its habits.<br><br>Like
a rap sheet for a wanted person, these mug shots and marks
of<br>identification were sent to several persons of horticultural
expertise who I<br>thought might help. After several weeks, all my
inquiries were answered (a<br>great accomplishment in itself). Most were
unfamiliar with the plant, and<br>one respondent thought it might be a
semi-double Oriental poppy.<br><br>The true identity came in a letter
from Fred McGourty, owner of Hillside<br>Gardens, a perennial nursery in
Norfolk, CT, and the former editor of the<br>BBG's Handbook series. Mr.
McGourty wrote in March 2001 telling me that<br>there were not many
cultivars of poppies with double flowers, and that this<br>one seemed to
match Papaver lateritium 'Flore Pleno', commonly known as
the<br>Armenian Poppy. He also wrote that it was uncommon in the eastern
US and<br>could well

be a pass-over-the-fence plant of rural areas.<br><br>In his book
"Poppies", Christopher Grey-Wilson reports that "it is a native<br>of
the mountains of Turkish Armenia (Lazistan) where it inhabit
rocky<br>places, cliff crevices, and screes at altitudes of 3900 - 9850
feet." The<br>Armenian Poppy is a long-lived perennial, naturalized in
England, and is<br>hardy here from zones 4-9. In Tulsa its
two-and-a-half to 3 inch bright<br>orange flowers open in May, looking
like ruffled petticoats. They are<br>traffic stoppers, however, and can
be difficult to assimilate into most<br>color schemes. They might be
best used in a border's front with gray or<br>silver plants.<br><br>It
seems that, regardless of the success of recent plant hunters in
exotic<br>places, there are still worthy plants to be discovered, or
rediscovered, in<br>our own wonderful
land.<br><br>=======<br><br>Kitty<br><br><br><br>----- Original Message
----- <br>From: <Aplfgcnys@aol.com><br>To:

<gardenchat@hort.net><br>Sent: Monday, May 23, 2005 12:31 PM<br>Subject:
Re: [CHAT] Rain > poppies<br><br><br>> I'd love to know the name, Kitty.
I have trouble saying "I don't<br>> know." When my kids were small they
used to think that<br>> when Ma said she didn't know something, she was
just<br>> being mean. Nowadays I frequently can't come up with<br>> the
right word right away, but I know that I do know it and<br>> it will
come to me, maybe in the middle of the night. With<br>> these, I just
plain don't know and never have.<br>><br>> In a message dated 05/23/2005
1:25:35 PM Eastern Daylight Time,<br>> 4042N15@nationalhearing.com
writes:<br>> Auralie,<br>> Re > old-fashioned double orange poppies
are<br>> > starting to bloom. I have no idea what kind they are -<br>> I
have the name at home. Horticulture mag did a small article on them<br>>
several years ago. The writer researched them and found they had
been<br>> brought here by immigrants from Europe.<br>><br>>

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