ANNUAL POPPIES. 



Lily. I have also got a yellow double 

 one, but not tested enough yet to prove 

 its merits. 



Thomas Meehan says, "Vour Trillium 

 is a beauty, and will be welcome in 

 flower gardens." 



This, I think, is the first Double Tril- 

 lium that has ever been found. 



Roderick Cameron, 

 Gardener Q. V. N. F.Park, Ont. 

 Niagara Falls Soi/t/i. 



ANNUAL POPPIES. 



F you love color in flowers, there is 

 no way in which you can gratify 

 your desires so cheaply and so fully 

 as by planting a good selection of 

 poppies. For the last six weeks my 

 garden border has been such a gorgeous 

 display and source of pleasure to our- 

 selves and friends, that possibly my ex- 

 perience with varieties and mode of cul- 

 tivation may be of interest to some 

 readers of the Horticulturist. 



If you want to grow the finest pop- 

 pies, plant the seed as early in the 

 spring as the ground can be worked, 

 and be sure not to plant too deep ; 

 many fail from planting the seed so 

 deep that it does not germinate. The 

 best way is to rake your bed smooth, 

 scatter the seed thinly, then rake gently 

 and firm the soil well with a flat board, 

 or, better still, the back of a hoe. When 

 they are up two or three inches, thin 

 out to about six inches apart for the 

 weaker growing kinds, and nine to 

 twelve inches for the strong growing, 

 Papaver sovtniferum type. They will 

 bloom abundantly, much closer than 

 that ; but to get the best plants, finest 

 flowers and the longest season of bloom- 

 ing, it is necessary to give them plenty 

 of room. If you do not want to save 

 seed, pick all the pods as soon as the 

 petals drop ; it lengthens the blooming 

 season very much not to allow any seed 

 to ripen, and saves a lot of trouble the 

 next season. The seed is quite hardy, 

 and if left to ripen, comes up in count- 



less numbers the following spring, often 

 where they are not wanted. One ad- 

 vantage of self-sown seed is that the 

 plants bloom earlier — this year, the first 

 week in July : while spring-sown seed, 

 though put in early, did not bloom for 

 about two weeks later. 



Poppies are so very susceptible to 

 cross-fertilization, that new strains are 

 constantly arising One German firm 

 offer 24 varieties of Papaver somnifer- 

 um, and every year is adding to the 

 number. In a garden where several 

 kinds are grown, it is no use saving 

 seed, if you want to keep your strains 

 true to type. Last year, I carefully 

 saved a number of special colors of 

 Shirley and Ranunculus-flowered ; this 

 summer I had a great show of flowers 

 from that seed, some very fine ones, but 

 not a single plot was the same as the 

 one the seed was saved from. 



The ease with which new varieties 

 can be originated has led to a great deal 

 of confusion in the seed catalogues ; 

 the names give no clue to the species 

 to which the variety belongs, making it 

 very difficult for the buyer to know 

 what to order, unless he is acquainted 

 with the names and types. 



The following varieties, which I grew 

 this summer, comprise the cream of the 

 family : 



SINGLE FLOWERS. 



Papaver somnifenim — The Opium 

 Poppy. — Grows from 2 to 4 feet high ; 



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