Iceland poppies
Last year I sowed and grew a pack of ordinary Iceland poppies (Papaver croceum). There was a nice range of citrus colours but nothing very fancy and no pinks. At the end of the season I pulled the plants up and threw them on some sunny wasteland in case they wanted to self seed but, so far, nothing. But a plant popped up in the strawberry bed and I was so impressed with its resilience, growing through 8cm of compost, that I left it even though it was only 1cm from the strawberry. Iceland poppies are not very dense plants so I didn’t think it would do any harm. Well for the past few weeks it has been in bloom with a couple of flowers open every day. The flowers are pure white apart from where they are stained with pollen in the centre and somehow more beautiful for purity of colour. It makes me appreciate the black ‘stubble’ on the seed pod and the velvet texture of the stigma. The pollen beetles like them too.
The Biking Gardener 
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