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25.6.07

Poppies In My Garden

Last year I received poppy seeds in trades and never having grown them before didn't know what to expect. I was told to just scatter them on the ground in the winter and in the spring I would have more poppies than I knew what to do with. The blooms and colors were amazing and there were some poppies that I wish I had labeled and saved seeds from more carefully. I got a lot of comments on them in the garden and even some quizzical looks from people who wanted to know why I was growing poppies. Since I'm gardening in an urban area I sometimes played dumb and pretended they weren't poppies and say would they were something else.

Poppies Bees Peony Poppies


This year I got a lot more doubles or what look like peony poppies and I've labeled a few so that I could just grow those next year. I wonder how (or if) they hybridize because the bees been having a field day collecting pollen from the blooms. The bumblebees seem to be attracted to the dark red blooms and it's fun to watch them crash onto a bloom, scattering petals and collect pollen furiously before flying off to the next bloom where they chase away the honey bees and the hover flies.

In the morning before most people were awake I got up early and tried to capture the event. I've uploaded a video of some bees to YouTube and if all goes well you can see the clip below. If not try this link.

8 comments:

  1. Love those doubles and the "Blackjack" below is a superb colour. Great video...aren't bees (in fact all insects) a joy to watch.

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  2. You have an excellent collection of poppies. This is the first year that I've had poppies appearing in my garden - they must have blown in. When I have tried to grow them in the past, I didn't have much luck.

    A fun video to watch!

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  3. I have never had any luck growing poppies and I love them! I'm jealous!!

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  4. That was one happy little bee! I love poppies, but have never tried to grow them. Maybe I'll throw out my seed this year and see what happens.

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  5. Ruth,

    They are fun to watch. This week I've spotted two bees in the garden that I had never seen before. I'm going to try to track them down and see if I make a post about them. Honey, Bumblee I'm familiar with but these have me scratching my head.

    Kate,
    Free plants are always a good thing. I hope you have luck with yours. A few of mine have reseeded and they'll probably be around a while. Maybe the same will happen with yours.

    CG,

    Sorry to hear about your luck with poppies but maybe you'll get some volunteers like Kate did.

    Chris,

    Go ahead and give them a shot they're fun to watch and provide some soothing motion in the garden.

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  6. Would love to know the name of the double pink one, the bottom one in the stack. That's my colour!

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  7. Helen,

    I wish I knew. I didn't get names with them when they were given to me.

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  8. These are all so beautiful. The video certainly makes you know why they say busy as a bee. He looks like you couldn't distract him if you wanted to.

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