Bright and symbolic beauties: Poppies don't flower for long...
but their bursts of colour are full of meaning READ MORE: Open the doors to summer: It's officially here and there's work to be done - so follow these simple tips 13486303 By Ciar Byrne For The Daily Mail Published: 20:47, 9 June 2024 | Updated: 20:47, 9 June 2024 e-mail View comments Poppies are fleeting flowers, blooming in the most unlikely places, then shedding their petals at the first sign of wind or rain. But they provide pops of colour that bring borders to life. Full of symbolism, poppies are perhaps best known as flowers of remembrance, and notably were worn at this week’s D-Day 80th anniversary events.
Each November, we wear red poppies to honour all who gave their lives for their country. They commemorate the common poppies ( Papaver rhoeas ) that grew in the fields of Flanders where soldiers died in World War I , the broken earth stirring their seeds into life. These are annual flowers that appear in early summer and grow to around 75cm with a single scarlet bloom, sometimes black at the base of the petals.
Pop of colour: Opium poppies and their wonderful magenta-pink flowers DEATH’S BLOSSOM In mythology, poppies are associated with sleep and death, due to the sedative power of the opium poppy ( P. somniferum ), an annual flower native to the Mediterranean. They can grow over a metre high with grey-green stems and leaves, and large silken bowlshaped flowers.
Opium poppies look wonderful in the gar.
