Papaver orientale Pink Ruffles - Oriental Poppy

Simple crumpled and flexible silk corollas, pearly pink with crumpled and dissected petals on the edges, punctuated with black macules. Flowering extends from late spring to mid-summer. Silky foliage, a bit disheveled, in a lush bluish-green tuft. A sturdy variety, with a very natural appearance, resistant to cold and drought. Common in cottage gardens, it is easy to cultivate in all good garden soils, in the sun.

The 'Pink Ruffles' Oriental Poppy is a variety of Oriental Poppy, beautiful like a simple large poppy and just as easy to cultivate. Its crumpled and fringed silk corollas are spectacular in size, with a flexible texture, and adorned with a pearly pink color enhanced by 4 large black central macules. They bloom in late spring and summer, dominating a silky, somewhat disheveled, lush dark green tuft. This stout variety has retained a very natural appearance of a wild plant and excellent resistance to wind, cold, and drought. A perennial accustomed to cottage gardens, it thrives in all good garden soils, in the sun.

The Oriental Poppy is an herbaceous perennial of the Papaveraceae family, native to Asia. Oriental poppies are excellent perennial plants for borders. Behind their large crumpled petal flowers, hides a very robust plant capable of surviving in poor, rocky, and dry soils in summer. After abundant flowering in late spring, the poppy withers, first the flower stalks, which can be used in dried bouquets, and then the leaves. It completely disappears to enter dormancy in the heart of summer and re-emerges in autumn to bloom again as soon as the temperatures become milder. Its only fear is winter humidity; in heavy soils, the solution is to replace the clayey soil with pure sand in the planting hole.

The 'Pink Ruffles' cultivar has sturdy stems of approximately 75 cm (30in) in height. It forms a bushy clump reaching 40 cm (16in) in height (for the foliage) and 50 cm (20in) in width. Flowering begins in May and continues into July, usually halted by heat and drought. Each flower stalk carries a single pendant bud at its tip, turning towards the sky to give birth to a large flower, approximately 15 cm (6in) in diameter, with crumpled petals in 2 rows, pearly pink and marked with large black spots at the base of the corolla. The flower remains open for a few hours before dropping its petals. Well-established plants produce several flower stalks, ensuring the renewal of flowers for about 3 weeks. After flowering, the foliage tends to disappear, leaving, in autumn, a small basal rosette, which is characteristic of an adaptation to high temperatures and summer drought. This plant has large, rough, dissected and hairy leaves, giving them a very decorative gray-blue reflection. The fleshy and deep roots of this Oriental poppy do not tolerate transplantation well, especially in mature plants.

An excellent transitional plant for borders, the 'Pink Ruffles' Oriental poppy blooms during a lull period (after spring flowering and before summer flowering). It pairs very well with small airy flowers like sea kale or baby's breath, or with spiky perennials like linaria.

It completely disappears to enter dormancy in the heart of summer and re-emerges in autumn to bloom again as soon as the temperatures become milder.