Poppy Falling in Love mix Seeds - Papaver rhoeas

This selection of Papaver rhoeas or field poppy 'Falling in Love' is a mixture of double or semi-double, twirling poppies that predominantly come in shades of red and pink, displaying bi-coloured or picotee ruffled flowers. This simple-looking flower is ideal for creating unforgettable scenes with great ease. Perfect in brand new gardens, indispensable in natural areas, it self-seeds readily. It thrives in full sun and adapts to poor, even heavy, chalky and degraded soil. Sowing their seeds is child’s play.

The field poppy, also known as the common poppy, or simply poppy, is an annual plant of the family Papaveraceae that is native to Asia Minor. Papaver 'Falling in Love' is a selection derived from this adorable “weed". Fast growing, in one season they reach a height of 60 cm when in flower and a width of 30 cm. The fragile-looking slender stems are rough and sparsely branched. The leaves are arranged in alternating rows and are divided into narrow, toothed lobes. Fragile in appearance, just like their slender, rough and sparsely branched stems, these plants form clumps of alternate leaves that are divided into narrow, toothed lobes. Their true vigour is revealed when they inevitably emerge from freshly overturned soil, germinating from seeds that are sometimes very old. When the stem is broken, it exudes a white, milky sap. They flower in summer, from June to August, depending on the climate and the time of sowing. The flowers are shaped into open cups that present several rows of silky, slightly crumpled petals that are all bicoloured with lighter edges or picotee, in a variety of shades that range from white to red and include all hues of pink. The centre bears numerous stamens with bluish-black anthers. The flowers give way to fruits in the form of capsules containing numerous seeds that the wind will scatter.

At ease in wild gardens, in cloister gardens and gardens without gardeners, poppies make it possible to quickly and effortlessly create oceans of flowers of poignant simplicity, harmonizing perfectly with the harsh summer light. Although they are not very long-lasting in bouquets, poppy flowers are extremely charming in beds when combined with bearded irises, tall daisies, large peonies or the swaying leaves of grasses. This annual plant, like the cosmos and nigella, has no equal when it comes to covering sunny embankments around new constructions and bright, open spaces between annuals or big, late flowering perennials such as Helianthus whose blooms take over later in the season. If you still want to make bouquets with these flowers, the stems should be cauterized where they have been cut in order to prevent the flowers from fading the same day.