Papaver rhoeas Burgundy Bigalow

This Papaver rhoeas Burgundy Bigalow, also known as an annual poppy, corn poppy or field poppy, is a beautiful new variety discovered by the seed company Thompson and Morgan. As charming as it is rare, this variety produces double and silky flowers beautifully variegated with burgundy red, wine red and mauve, while being just as easy to grow as the simple poppies in our countryside. This undemanding plant grows, self-seeds and reseeds quietly in the sun, creating a spectacular effect in sunny borders and flower beds. Perfect for new gardens, it quickly fills empty spaces and thrives in poor, heavy, calcareous and degraded soil. Its sowing is foolproof.

The field poppy, also known as corn poppy, is an annual plant of the Papaveraceae family, native to Asia Minor.

The 'Burgundy Bigalow' cultivar is a rare, double and variegated form of this simple plant. Fast-growing, it reaches a height of 75 cm (30in) in flower and a width of 30 cm (12in) in a single season. Despite its delicate appearance, with thin, rough and sparsely branched stems, this plant forms a dense clump of alternate leaves, divided into narrow and toothed lobes, whose full power is revealed when it inevitably emerges from freshly disturbed soil, from seeds that can sometimes be very old. When the stem is broken, it releases a white and milky sap. The summer flowering extends from June to August, depending on the climate and sowing date. The open cup-shaped flowers have numerous silky, slightly wrinkled petals. The green centre is filled with numerous stamens and black anthers. The flowers give way to fruits that are capsules containing a large number of seeds that will be dispersed by the wind. This variety faithfully self-seeds in the garden year after year.

At home in wild gardens, poppies allow you to quickly and effortlessly create oceans of infinitely bright and moving flowers, in perfect harmony with the harsh light of summer. While they are not very long-lasting in bouquets, poppy flowers have a charm of their own when they accompany iris in flower beds, large daisies or the swaying foliage of grasses. This annual plant, like cosmos, is unmatched for occupying embankments around construction sites, empty spaces between annuals or late-flowering perennials like sunflowers 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 have been cut, thus preventing the flowers from wilting during the day.