Orange poppies

[igenlode]

The orange long-headed poppies (Papaver dubium) are now in flower, which means I currently have *four* different kinds and colours of poppy on display, as the red field poppies have also opened their first flower. The Oriental poppies have buds now but no flowers as yet, but since all the other varieties still have unopened buds on we shall probably manage to score all five at once ;-)

It is interesting to compare the orange poppies with the California poppies (Eschscholzia rather than Papaver), which are a bright, almost neon, strident orange with thick tulip-like petals; the native orange poppies are a far more delicate and almost translucent colour, like water-colour as versus oil paint, and the flowers are much more fragile in appearance -- and ephemeral in practice. Most of the petals had blown away by this evening!

It does occur to me that in future years, once the seed has made its way into the soil, as it inevitably does, I'm likely to have trouble distinguishing between the long-headed poppies and the field poppies, since their foliage and flower buds are very similiar. The only obvious difference is in the colour of the petals and the subsequent shape of the seedcases, and one really needs to be able to distinguish for weeding-out purposes at a much earlier stage!