A minor horticultural triumph
Duncan Bird21 February 2011
Today I am going to share a very minor horticultural triumph, back in the autumn of 2009 I sowed some Paeonia mlokosewitschii or as a mere mortal like me calls it Molly the Witch. My wife has been sceptical looking at pots in which seemed very empty but patience is rewarded and they have come good. I have 2 coming up so far. I must confess to some surprise that any have geminated, and no idea of how long until we have a flower if they survive. I feel slightly guilty about mentioning this variety as we have none for sale but there are alternatives such as Paeonia lactiflora Festiva Maxima that is a lovely white variety.
We are taking part in a garden at Hampton court this year that needs poppies, so we sowed some Ladybird Poppies on January 30th these are just beginning to geminate (Feb 9th) I’m amazed at the amount of root hairs showing so early on, as you can see surface sown as they are tiny seeds.
I know that better photographers than me would have got a deeper field of focus with their macro lens but I’m a mere beginner at this game!
Annual poppies are fine for the effect we are looking for these are
stunt doubles for the wild field poppy. For my garden I would always
choose an oriental poppy these are perennial and come up year after year
one of the best is Papaver orientale Bonfire which is a lovely dark red
with black basal blotches at the base of the petal, one aspect of these
plants that can throw you is that they disappear into the ground in the
summer after flowering just leaving their seed pods to ripen.
