I am not a great lover of opium poppies (Papaver somniferum). The flowers are lovely and, in theory, the bold, grey leaves are striking. But in practice, I find the foliage coarse and, in many cases, it starts to die, in an ugly way, before the flowers are over. And the flowering season is short. even with careful deadheading. The most popular seem to be those with double flowers and they are inelegant frou-frous, if ever a flower was a popinjay it is these. They are as desirable as double hibiscus. I have only planted opium poppies once in this garden and that was two years ago; ‘Lauren’s Grape’. It is almost beautiful enough to convert me. The grape-purple flowers are perfectly complemented by the foliage and bees love them. But, even though I was dazzled by their beauty, I did not grow them again last year even though I had plenty if seeds left in the packet. And I sowed other poppies this year. But then I noticed some opium poppies growing in a new bed.

This was a bit of a surprise because this bed was grass when I grew ‘Lauren’s Grape’. It was only dug out and planted this past winter. So quite how the seeds got into the bed is a bit of a mystery, especially as no seedlings appeared in the beds where they originally grew – even though, despite this bed being replanted twice a year, calendulas and tropaeolum pop up with slightly annoying fecundity.

Rather fortuitously, these three seedlings appeared near the base of a newly planted physocarpus. I am a bit of a sucker for these colourful and easy shrubs because they seem to like the garden. The one caveat I would add is that too many of the new ones are dwarf, with tiny leaves, and I am not keen on those. But here I planted Midnight (‘Jonight’) which will reach 2m and is one of the darkest.

Well today the first poppy flower opened and, as I had hoped, it is ‘Lauren’s Grape’ and the two plants look perfect together. I am really happy with the combination and it is inspiration for other plants in the same colour pairing. I will enjoy the poppy flowers for the few weeks they last and I will happily allow some seed pods to form and hope that the display is repeated, on a large scale, next year.

Nearby, in the bee bed, where colour combinations are freer (or just wild) the ‘American Legion’ (‘Legion of Honour’) poppies are in full bloom. Waving above the convolvulus, iberis and clarkias, their intensely scarlet blooms, each with a white cross at the base (except in the inevitable ‘off’ plants) are satisfyingly simple and enchanting and a magnet for the bees.

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