Poppy love: garden-worthy members of the genus Papaver include some of the most fabled plants in human history

摘要

Gardeners usually either like poppies or they don't. Those who dislike poppies often find the genus's prevalent scarlets unbearably flamboyant or don't appreciate how fleeting the poppies' beauty is: Most species flower in season for only a short period, each fragile blossom lasting only a day or two. To make matters worse, annual and biennial sorts--once you have successfully grown them--also tend to be profligate reseeders in most climates. Even the perennial poppies have minds of their own. Justtry to get rid of a perennial poppy once it has made itself at home in your garden. Still, I love poppies, and I am not alone. The ancient Egyptians grew them with daisies and waterlilies for use in bouquets, crowns, and garlands. Thomas Jefferson grewmany kinds at Monticello, including a double corn poppy. And Gertrude Jekyll used the "rich apricot" flowers of Papaver rupifragum and P. pilosum to color her June garden. The true poppies belong to the genus Papaver, which contains as many as 70 more orless variable perennial, biennial, and annual species that range in flower from baby egg-cups to Wassail bowl-flowered giants. Members of the genus can be found in all parts of the world, mainly in the northern hemisphere. Stems possess an often poisonous milky sap; foliage can be either smooth or hairy and varies in shape according to species. Flowers are usually solitary, each featuring a prominent capped ovary surrounded by stamens that later develops into an inflated, round to elongated seed pod.