SUMMER

"OH, THE SUMMER NIGHT

HAS A SMILE OF LIGHT

&  SHE SITS ON A SAPPHITE THRONE."

Barry Cornwall

 

WELSH POPPY
(Papaver cambricum)

Seed collecting and 
flowers blooming
Gatehouse seed shed,
Reefnet Bay Road,
Shaw Island, WA.
June 2024

🌿 Gwen's "Welsh Poppies" 🌿 (Papaver cambricum)

"Gwen's Welsh Poppies" 
Papaver cambricum 
var. Aurantiaca
Photo: 1980s, Shaw Island, WA.

Common name: "Welsh Poppies"

Type: Perennial

Native Region: Western Europe

Growing Region: USDA Zone 6-8

Preferred Climate: Temperate.

Maintenance: Low.

Degree of Difficulty: EASY

Tolerates: Will grow in damp or dry conditions. This poppy made it through 
the blooming period without being molested by local deer at the Gatehouse Garden.

Description:
If you are looking for an easy Papaver to grow, this is it. A tap-rooted hardy perennial, this plant produces a succession of yellow to orange blooms that will brighten any garden. Height, 18 inches.

Cultivation:
For maximum freshness, please keep the seed refrigerated in its original packaging until it is time to plant. Sow seeds where they are to be grown in spring or fall. Easy to just broadcast out. Grow in humusy, moist but well-drained slightly acidic soil in sun to part shade.
Easy, reliable, and undemanding.

Notes: 

Welsh poppies are grown at the well-known, exuberant Great Dixter estate garden in southern England, at the Washington State Extension display garden in Mount Vernon, WA., and then they kept sailing west to find their way across the saltwater to grow happily on Shaw Island for at least, the last 40 years. See the name change in the caption below.
     

PAPAVER CAMBRICUM
 Shaw Island seedpod harvest. 
Botanists have officially changed the name from
Meconopsis cambrica under which we had
previously listed this specimen.
Now it is officially a POPPY.