Common Poppy organic seeds - Papaver rhoeas

The organic Red Poppy or Papaver rhoeas is the famous corn poppy or field poppy, once very common in our countryside. This annual plant unfolds its crumpled bright red corollas in summer. Perfect in brand new gardens for its pioneering ability to reclaim degraded lands, it is essential in natural areas. These plants are undemanding, poppies grow and self-seed quietly in the sun. They tolerate poor soil, even heavy, limestone, and degraded soil. Sow in place.

Papaver rhoeas or corn poppy, also known as field poppy, or common poppy, is an annual plant of the papaveraceae family originating from Asia Minor. Growing rapidly, it reaches 60 cm in height when in flower and 30 cm wide in a season. Despite its delicate appearance, like its thin, rough, and little branched stems, this plant forms a tuft of alternate, narrow, and toothed lobed leaves, whose full power is revealed when it inevitably emerges from freshly disturbed soils, from sometimes very old seeds. When the stem is broken, it releases a white milky juice. The summer flowering extends from June to August, depending on the climate and sowing date. The open cup flowers have four silky, slightly crumpled petals, in striking deep red or scarlet. The centre has numerous stamens with blue-black anthers. The flowers are followed by capsules containing a large number of seeds that the wind will disperse.

The Red Organic Poppy works well in wild gardens, cottage gardens and neglected gardens, allowing you to quickly and effortlessly create oceans of simple, emotionally moving watercolour flowers, in perfect harmony with the summer light. While not very long-lasting when cut, poppy flowers have a charming allure when they accompany garden irises, large daisies, big peonies or the swaying foliage of grasses in flower beds. This annual plant, like cosmos and love-in-a-mist, is unmatched in occupying embankments around new constructions, empty spaces between annuals or large perennials with later flowering such as daylilies that take over, in full sun. If you still want to make bouquets with its flowers, you will need to cauterize the stems where they were cut, thus preventing the flowers from wilting during the day.

Make the most of these organic seeds to appreciate the edible qualities of the poppy: use its slightly sweet petals in salads or desserts. Dried, they can be added to herbal tea blends.