Silky Poppies For Winter-Garden

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The most appropriate flower for winter is Poppies. Stretching back to 7000 years, poppies have been coloring the gardens all around the world. Poppy seeds have been found even in Egyptian tombs. Poppy plant is commonly known as the opium plant. Ancient Greeks viewed wild poppies as a sign of agricultural fertility. Because the seeds can lie dormant for years and grow best when the soil is disturbed or cultivated, Greeks who found them growing wild in their corn fields saw them as an omen of a bountiful corn harvest.

There are more than 120 species in the Poppy family. Flowers are found in white, blue, orange, yellow, and shades of pink. These delightfully scented flowers come in brilliant shades of yellow, pink, orange and sometimes red. The two to three inch flowers come in single, semi-double, and double forms. The petals look like crinkled silk. This Silky flowers in deep colours are the elegant feature of this plant. Growing poppy plant is so easy that a child could grow it in the garden. Once planted anywhere, poppy seeds lay under soil for long periods and will sprout out when proper weather and conditions occur. They"re easy to care for and relatively maintenance-free. The colorful blossoms of this plant will attract birds, bees, and butterflies to your garden. Most poppies grow in temperate and subtropical climates. There are different species of poppies for cold zones and warmer zones.

Poppies are carefree growers and look the best in wildflower-type plantings. Traditionally they"re planted in mass plantings to reproduce the effect of a wildflower field. Unlike many perennials, poppies will die down in the heat of summer, after they"ve bloomed. If proper pruning is not done poppy plants will grow in massive numbers and will conquer your garden. Therefore replace poppies with other plants when the flowering season is over. Most poppy species are at their flowering peak in late spring and early summer.

How to grow

Poppies are most often grown from seed. They should be sown directly into the garden. Prepare the bed by loosening garden soil and add a thin layer of compost. With no much care poppies will grow in large numbers. The easiest way to propagate poppies is to harvest the seed pods when the poppies go dormant. Split them open, and gather the seeds yourself for use the following year. Poppies prefer neutral to slightly acidic soil. Poppies are hardy enough to be grown in the poorest of soils. Poppies do best in full sun, although a few varieties can handle light shade. Poppies rarely need fertilisation and as most of them are grown in winter watering is needed only at the early stages. Poppies are resistant to most animal pests, but can be infested by certain types of aphids.

To mix the colors of flower poppies could be inter planted. Once the flowers have finished, the dead stem with distinctive seed pod turns papery brown. This can either be cut back, or left in the garden for birds to eat the seeds.