POPPIES 
By 
Clarence M. Weed 
Snowdrift Poppies 
Shirley Poppies 
ease 
/CONSIDERING their beauty and 
of culture it is strange that poppies are 
not more generally grown in American gar¬ 
dens. To the one who cultivates his flowers 
for the love of them there are few blossoms 
that will yield richer returns than these. 
And when one has begun to grow the more 
beautiful sorts, the garden will seem lacking 
thereafter if it does not show at least a few 
of the glorious colors of these poppies. 
One of the commonest reasons for failure 
in poppy culture is that of planting 
too late in the season. This is es¬ 
pecially likely to be true in gardens 
where one must depend upon Nature 
for rainfall to keep the soil moist. 
The seeds are so small that the tiny 
plants wither quickly under adverse 
conditions. The obvious remedy 
for this is to sow the seed early when 
there is an abundance of rain, and 
when the days are not parching in 
their effect upon the soil surface, or 
in the case of later sowing to keep 
the soil watered artificially. 
The tiny poppy seeds require 
some care in planting. One is 
practically certain to sow them 
more thickly than is desirable, unless 
one first mixes them with dry sand or 
corn-meal. And they must not be 
covered to any depth. Make a tiny furrow and 
scatter the seed in it during a light rain, or 
sprinkle it with a watering pot after sowing. 
This will give sufficient covering. When the 
plants are up thin them from time to time 
until there is room for each one left to develop 
normally. The distance apart to leave them 
will depend upon the type of poppy. T he 
comparatively small plants of the Shirley 
varieties require less room than the much 
larger plants of the peony-flowered sorts. 
There are several distinct types of 
poppy flowers, and it is desirable 
that the amateur should grow some 
plants of each of the more important 
forms, at least until he has been 
able to compare them and select 
for future culture those types that 
please him most. Were one restrict¬ 
ed to a single type it would for most 
of us probably be the Shirley poppies, 
the delicacy and beauty of which 
are unsurpassed by any flowers. 
The general structure of these is 
shown in the accompanying engrav¬ 
ing. The plants are not very large, 
and have slender, graceful stems and 
leaves. The flower buds are en¬ 
closed in two large sepals that fall 
off as the petals unfold, revealing the 
Shirley Poppy light colored stamens surrounding 
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