The Relatives Of the Poppy — By Leonard Barron, Er k 



THESE COMPRISE A HANDFUL OF PLANTS WITH SHOWY FLOWERS OF SINGULAR BEAUTY, WHICH 

 MAY BE GROWN IN ANY GARDEN, IF ONLY ATTENTION BE GIVEN TO TWO SMALL DETAILS 



'T^HE whole poppy family is remarkable 

 A for its very bright or strikingly 

 showy flowers. The true poppies give us 

 the most notable, gorgeous, large red flowers 

 of the herbaceous garden. They are tran- 

 scendently beautiful in the perennial oriental 

 poppy, but so emphatic and so dazzling as 

 to make the plant a somewhat dangerous 

 subject in garden effects, except when used 

 sparingly, to give occasional tone and re- 

 lief in stretches of shrubbery. Equally 

 brilliant, but more delicate and fragile in 

 appearance, the corn poppy has its own 

 place in the annual garden, and a hint of 

 the beautiful colorings of the other members 

 of this gorgeous family may be seen in some 

 of the varieties of the Iceland and Alpine 

 poppies. 



While red is the dominating color of the 

 poppies, gorgeous yellow is the striking 

 characteristic of most of the allied members, 

 a few, however, being equally striking white 

 flowers, and in one of the Indian genera, 

 Meconopsis, almost every other color of 

 the spectrum. Of wonderful silky or satiny 

 texture, one can almost tell from a glance 

 at the petals whether a given plant is one of 

 the poppy allies; and the relationship is 

 carried generally in the foliage, which is 

 either glaucous or set with coarse hairs. So 

 marked, indeed, is the family relationship 

 that nearly all the other members have been 

 given popular names as being some form 

 of poppy, such as horned, prickly, Matilija, 

 and so forth. 



One striking exception to the even tenor 

 of things occurs in the plume poppy, which, 

 entirely devoid of petals, makes a plumy or 





The California poppy (Exclischolzia Califmnica). the 

 most important hardy annual, having flowers of 

 orange yellow 



The plume poppy (Bocconia cordala), the most im- 

 portant tall perennial of the family. Flowers 

 white and plumy, no petals 



feathery mass, with a profusion of stamens, 

 recalling the general effect of the thalictrums. 

 An interesting peculiarity that is character- 

 istic of the entire poppy family is that the 

 flowers shed their sepals immediately upon 

 opening, and further, they all have milky, 

 colored, or specially acrid juice. Aside from 

 any individual preference as to situation and 

 soil, as noted below, the successful cultiva- 

 tion of the poppy allies, as a group, seems 

 to rely upon observing these two factors: 

 Fresh seed, and not transplanting. 



TWO GOOD GARDEN ANNUALS 



To the amateur, the most important and 

 most interesting relative of the real poppy 

 is its yellow-flowered companion of the 

 Pacific Coast, Eschscholzia California! — the 

 California poppy — a plant that anyone can 

 grow, being of the easiest culture, and thriv- 

 ing in almost any sort of soil. The Cali- 

 fornia poppy is one of the few Pacific Coast 

 plants that is absolutely at home when re- 

 moved to the Eastern States, perfectly hardy, 

 and even self-sowing at times. Although 

 considered here, and usually treated, as an 

 annual in our gardens, the California poppy 

 is really a perennial, and plants may be 

 carried over from year to year if well pro- 

 tected, such plants giving bloom very early 

 the following spring. On account of the 

 peculiarly glaucous, bluish foliage, it is 

 one of the most valuable plants for edging 

 purposes, and it flowers over a considerable 

 period. The large flowers, two to three inches 

 84 



across, which open in the sunshine, are pro- 

 duced in great profusion, and have a tone of 

 brilliant yellow or orange that is unmatched 

 by any other hardy annual. It is interest- 

 ing to note the method in which the ex- 

 tinguisher-like cone, formed by the sepals, 

 is pushed off entire by the expanding flower. 



Several varieties have been introduced 

 from time to time, including some almost, 

 but not quite, white; one double form, and 

 more recently, the Burbank varieties, in 

 which a pinkish color has been considerably 

 developed. Other varieties show variation 

 in the foliage and other characters of the 

 plant. 



The only other annual genus, from a 

 horticultural standpoint, that is of great im- 

 portance, is the prickly poppies, Argemone. 

 The best-known species is A. Mexicana, 

 which has leaves and stems uncommonly 

 like those of the common thistle. The 

 plant grows one to two feet high, but has a 

 sprawling, somewhat ungracious habit. 

 The flowers are borne on very short stems, 

 about two inches across, orange or lemon 

 colored. A native of tropical America, it 

 has become naturalized in the Eastern States 

 and in the Old World. The variety most 

 commonly grown is ochroleuca, with much 

 paler flowers. 



Growing slightly taller — to about three 

 feet — and practically destitute of prickles, 

 except on the pod, is A. grandiflora, with 

 white flowers — a very useful border plant of 

 easy culture, and very useful where any loose- 

 habited, glaucous-leaved plant is wanted. 

 Its cultural peculiarity is a mild disaffection 

 for moist soils; in the Southern States in dry 



The Matilija poppy (Romntya Voulteri), most beau- 

 tiful and largest-flowered relative, but difficult to 

 grow 



