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Not California Poppies....

Hello all,

I've been a bit quiet of late as I've been writing up my thesis. Anyway, it's all 
submitted now, and I can concentrate on the garden a bit more. It's better 
than ever this year - the Clematis are lovely (not really medit plants I know, 
but nice all the same) and Crinodendron hookerianum is at its best . I also 
have a nice lot of Geranium palmatum flowering grown from the medit-plants 
seed exchange. The glandular hairs on the flower stalks glisten beautifully in 
the sunlight.

Stars of the show at the moment are the poppies though. P.orientalis hybrids 
are lovely - 'Goliath' isn't out yet but 'Turkenlouis', with fringed petals is 
flowering for the first time. P. spicatum is also out for the first time this year, 
and its soft orange flowers are very pleasing. I actually thought I'd killed it last 
summer, but it is obviously summer dormant as it came up fine this spring. 
A nurseryman friend tells me that Meconopsis horridula will do the same 
thing.

My favourite poppy at the moment, though, is an Eschscholtzia (sp?) that I 
saw in a neighbours garden recently. It is definitely not E. californica, and the 
neighbour couldn't remember the species name. It's a small plant about 
15-20cm high with lemon-yellow flowers above neat dissected leaves -very 
dainty. I shall have to scrounge a piece to key it out. 

Anyway, this set me looking at Chris Grey-Wilsons Poppies (a beautiful 
book) and I noticed how many beauiful Californian species there are. Most of 
them don't seem to be grown much in this country - plants like 
Dendromecon harfordii, Platystemon californicus and the various 
Eschscoltzia species. So..... if any of the Californian members are 
interested in exchanging seed, I can swap with seed of all sorts of things. In 
particular, I grow a lot of S. African species from which I should have seed.

Good growing!

Tristan

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Tristan Hatton-Ellis		
School of Biological Sciences	
University of Bristol			
Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UG, U.K.	
Telephone (0117) 928 9000 xtn 3855/3866	
Fax (0117) 9257374	
Email: Tristan.Hatton-Ellis@Bristol.ac.uk
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