The Fleeting Beauty of Poppies
And their extraordinary link to the crucifixion
Introduction
My garden has become rather wild over the last year, having had little time to devote to it. One of the flowers growing in it, self-sown, is the bright red poppy (Papaver somniferum) with its grey-green leaves.
The flower itself is a big, blousy, extravagant bloom. Mine are single blooms, though poppies can have double too. The ones growing in my garden are bright red with black at the base of the petals but they do come in a variety of colours.
The flower lasts for one day before the petals drop. That means there are only single flowers showing at a time.
Once bloomed, each flower produces a big seed head, which provides some architectural interest to the garden.
Wildlife
I’m all for encouraging the bees and other insects to do their pollinating and keeping pests under control.
So, are poppies good for wildlife?
Yes, poppies attract the bees with their nectar-rich and pollen-rich flowers.
You can see a bumblebee inside the flower (below). Next to it is the seed capsule of a previously flowering poppy.
