Somehow it feels as if the summer is moving fast. It’s all the fault of the flowers in my garden. (Well, just some of them!)
One day the opening flowers of a plant are teasing you with a flash of colour as they strain to pop out of the confinement of their buds. And just a few days later they’re already gone, leaving you with just a passing memory.
Oriental poppies are amongst the fastest-moving. From that first hint of the glorious petals as the flower emerges, to the rounded seed-head, takes hardly any time.
But the crumpled silk flowers with their dark and mysterious centres are so gorgeous that their short life is something special for me. Nothing in my garden can match the flamboyance or drama of these prima donna blooms and every year I excitedly await the moment that they will open.
The poppy in the top photograph is ‘Patty’s Plum’, a very popular cultivar. The second photograph is of a poppy that was labelled ‘Lilac Girl’, but is really a pretty pink rather than lilac. I tried Googling this plant, but could find little information on it, other than that it may be a seedling of Patty’s Plum. In any case, it’s a lovely flower, and I shall look forward to seeing it again next year.
Ann Mackay: Inspired by Nature 