Common Poppy

Common Name: Common Poppy

Latin Name: Papaver rhoeas

Ultimate Height: 50cm - 1 metre

Flower Colour: Deep Red

Type: Annual

Soil: Loam, Chalk, Clay, Alkaline, Neutral PH

Flowering times: June-September

History, uses and notes:

Iconic and emotive, the Poppy is the most recognisable of all our wildflowers. The Poppy's resilience allowed it to grow amongst the devastation of the WW1 battlefields and inspired Lt Col John McCrae, a Canadian Doctor mourning the loss of his friend to write the powerful poem ‘In Flanders Fields'.

The Poppy was then taken up as the emblem of the Royal British Legion on its formation in 1921 and is manufactured and sold every year on November 11th to raise money for injured servicemen and the families of the fallen. 

As an annual in your garden, the Poppy will flower within the first year, depending on when it's sown. To help it return year after year make sure to let it die back naturally so that it can self-seed. It's on the Royal Horticultural Society's list as 'Perfect for Pollinators and will help #bringthebeesback 

Description:

With their big, saucer-shaped, scarlet blooms, Common Poppies are one of the most familiar of all our wild flowers. The stems are long and thin, covered with fine hair as seen below.

Poppy flowering at our lab. You can also see two poppy buds almost ready to flower!

Bee visiting a poppy