Poppy Appeal

Most gardeners yearn for a splash of glamour, and the most flamboyant of all June’s flowers has to be the oriental poppy.

Even the subtlest of them are charismatic and, for the most part, they are the flashiest of flowers. Foliage appears early in the year, making neat rosettes, then suddenly, without warning, the poppy thrusts up its fat buds wreathed in hairy cases until, one morning, the first case splits to reveal delightful colours from blood red to subtle salmon.

The flower stems are strong and tall, up to 1.2m (4ft) and each supports a single magnificent bloom. As fast as the flowers come, they disappear, each lasts a few days at the most but when they climax with 10 to 20 open at one time the effect is stunning.

If you prefer a more drift effect Californian poppies (Eschscholzia) are for you, these are hardy annuals reaching a height of 50cm. Varieties are often bright yellow, orange or red, sow seeds in sunny position where you wish them to flower and they will thrive in poor, well-drained soil but you need full sun for the flowers to open.

Tip: can be grown as a drought-tolerant pot plant so also good for exposed areas as is also being beautifully demonstrated by the wild field poppies, which are currently lining our roadsides.

In the veg patch

I have been trying to the get the veg patch a bit more in order, the weeds were winning but things are looking better after a good clearing session if a little bare, with everything still seeming to be behind where it normally is at this time of year. I’ve sown some extra lines of lettuce and mixed leaves in the hope they will fill up some of the space before the weeds fill it up again!

My broad beans are being regularly inspected and at the first sign I pinch out any blackfly infested shoot tips, they also needed tying up were getting a bit top heavy.

My courgettes have now gone in, they’ll take up plenty of space, around 65cm x 65cm (25” x 25”) per plant and from experience I have learnt you only need two or three plants per household, the first year I planted 10 plants which resulted in courgette overload! I like two yellow and two green for a bit of colour variety although they taste the same.