Opium Poppy Cherry Glow Seeds - Papaver somniferum

Opium Poppy or Papaver somniferum Cherry Glow is the giant version of the adorable common poppy. As easy and undemanding as the latter, it displays all summer long, silky, richly coloured, deep red flowers over a beautiful bluish-green foliage. This annual plant is ideal to quickly and easily brighten up any sunny flower bed. Its ephemeral flowering gives way to fruits that are very attractive in dried flower bouquets. It shares the same advantage as its wild cousin, of being able to self-seed freely in the garden.

The opium poppy 'Cherry Glow' is a recent and original horticultural variety, belonging to the Papaveraceae or poppy family. It is derived from Papaver somniferum var. nigrum, which is found in the mountains of Asia, but also in Europe, on limestone soils where poppies usually grow. This plant, which probably originated in the regions between the Mediterranean and Anatolia, has given rise to a multitude of varieties that have long been cultivated for ornamental purposes.

'Cherry Glow' has a beautiful, undulating, silver-green foliage with beautifully lobed, elliptical leaves with scalloped margins. From its 30 to 40 cm wide clump of foliage, tall stems emerge from June to August, bearing intensely cheerful, rousing, solitary flowers, 90 cm above the ground. The four petals that form the flowers, are quite regular, forming silky, magenta-red to deep red fabric, marked with large black spots at the base of the petals. The centre of the flower, like that of common poppies, is embellished with a bouquet of black stamens.  Summer blooms give way to a characteristic fruit, filled with small very ornamental black seeds which take on a slate blue sheen as it dries. Their aspect changes with the light because of the film of crystallized wax that protects their surfaces. Opium poppies have a taproot that is not very resistant to transplanting, so it is best to sow them in place.

Comfortable in sophisticated gardens, in medieval-type gardens and gardens without gardeners, opium poppies make it possible to quickly and effortlessly create oceans of infinitely delicate flowers that seem to dance on the silvery foam of their foliage, creating a stirring spectacle of vivid, dark or pastel colours. Although they are not very long-lasting in bouquets, the flowers of the opium poppy 'Cherry Glow' are extremely charming in flower beds combined with cornflowers, tall daisies or the moving leaves of grasses. The sight of their scarlet petals strewn across the ground in the late afternoon is an enchantment. This annual plant, like the cosmos, has no equivalent for occupying the open sunny spaces between annuals or large perennials such as sunflowers, whose flowers take over later in the season.

Once the flowering period is over, the fruit remains, providing a precious asset for dry bouquets, but also the poppy straw, which is often perceived in more wild areas as a majestic element of the garden or a somewhat enigmatic remnant of summer.