You may THINK this is a picture of the most lovely, frilly salmon-coloured Pink Peony Poppy in the world.
But all I see when I look at this picture is the cut stem on the right.
It was TOTALLY different from the one you see here!
It was bold-red, papery all around like a poppy, but then double, triple the petals inside like a peony.
The picture above was taken LITERALLY when I ran outside with the camera to take its picture before the bloom faded.
It was cut. Ted says there's no doubt about it. There was no damage to the stem or anything, just a nice, clean C-U-T. The beige blob you can make out on the stem is a bead of its milky sap, all dried up.
Of course, this being the infamous papaver somniferum, the opium poppy (YES, I accidentally typed "poopy"), I could probably console myself just by licking the sap, which apparently has mild antidepressant properties. :-)))
I was SOOoooo excited about this flower, I cannot tell you.
These were some of my wintersown seeds that I basically gave up on. A few sprouted and I transferred them, literally, with a tablespoon, to a patch of mud in the front yard. From which they bloomed into these beauteous plants that are there today. Why does that spelling of beauteous look SOooo wrong?
Of course, it IS barely three feet from a busy sidewalk. And I know from Gayla Trail's mishaps not to plant things I deeply care about right by the road. I didn't care about them when I planted them, I promise! I only just lost my heart when it bloomed.
There are more blooms coming. And I put up a sign that says "We love our flowers. Please do not pick them."
Too verbose - it ought to just say, "keep away, morons." I could probably leave off the comma and they wouldn't know the difference.
KEEP AWAY MORONS.
But all I see when I look at this picture is the cut stem on the right.
It was TOTALLY different from the one you see here!
It was bold-red, papery all around like a poppy, but then double, triple the petals inside like a peony.
The picture above was taken LITERALLY when I ran outside with the camera to take its picture before the bloom faded.
It was cut. Ted says there's no doubt about it. There was no damage to the stem or anything, just a nice, clean C-U-T. The beige blob you can make out on the stem is a bead of its milky sap, all dried up.
Of course, this being the infamous papaver somniferum, the opium poppy (YES, I accidentally typed "poopy"), I could probably console myself just by licking the sap, which apparently has mild antidepressant properties. :-)))
I was SOOoooo excited about this flower, I cannot tell you.
These were some of my wintersown seeds that I basically gave up on. A few sprouted and I transferred them, literally, with a tablespoon, to a patch of mud in the front yard. From which they bloomed into these beauteous plants that are there today. Why does that spelling of beauteous look SOooo wrong?
Of course, it IS barely three feet from a busy sidewalk. And I know from Gayla Trail's mishaps not to plant things I deeply care about right by the road. I didn't care about them when I planted them, I promise! I only just lost my heart when it bloomed.
There are more blooms coming. And I put up a sign that says "We love our flowers. Please do not pick them."
Too verbose - it ought to just say, "keep away, morons." I could probably leave off the comma and they wouldn't know the difference.
KEEP AWAY MORONS.
So sorry. The thing about gardening is that even if you don't care about a plant when you start it is nearly impossible to avoid growing invested in a positive outcome.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally I cut my poppy stems the minute they came out! Sad that they couldn't stay in the garden but at least I got to enjoy them in a vase.
OMG, Gayla Trail read MY blog?!?! I am never washing my keyboard ever EVER again! You're my gardening hero, woman! Everybody stop reading here right this instand and read HER BLOG instead!
ReplyDelete