Opium Poppy Cream Peony Seeds - Papaver somniferum

Le Papaver somniferum Cream Peony is a variety of opium poppy with peony flowers shaped like big, tightly packed pompoms that are of a delicate white colour, warmed up by a cream centre. This annual poppy also develops a very beautiful, undulating, bluish-green foliage that is not without elegance. Its flowers bloom in summer, borne on strong stems, and then turn into slate-tinted globular fruits that are very decorative in dried flower bouquets. Opium poppies are undemanding plants, easy to grow in any well-prepared soil with good sun exposure.

The opium poppy 'Cream Peony' is a recent and original horticultural variety, belonging to the Papaveraceae or poppy family. It is derived from Papaver somniferum var. nigrum, which is found in the mountains of Asia, but also in Europe, on limestone soils where poppies usually grow. This plant, which probably originated in the regions between the Mediterranean and Anatolia, has given rise to a multitude of varieties that have long been cultivated for ornamental purposes.

'Cream Peony' is a variety of the 'Paeoniflorum' type, with its wavy petals and slightly cut edges. It has magnificent, undulating, silver-green foliage with beautifully lobed, elliptical leaves with scalloped margins. From its 40 to 50 cm wide clump of foliage, tall stems emerge from June to July, bearing 10 cm, very double, solitary flowers, 90 cm above the ground. They are perfectly rounded and made up of large white petals that are tinged with cream at their base. Summer blooms give way to a characteristic fruit, filled with small very ornamental black seeds which take on a slate blue sheen as it dries. Their aspect changes with the light because of the film of crystallized wax that protects their surfaces. Opium poppies have a taproot that is not very resistant to transplanting, so it is best to sow them in place.

Comfortable in sophisticated gardens, in medieval-type gardens and gardens without gardeners, opium poppies make it possible to quickly and effortlessly create oceans of infinitely delicate flowers that seem to dance on the silvery foam of their foliage, creating a stirring spectacle of vivid, dark or pastel colours. Although they are not very long-lasting in bouquets, the flowers of the opium poppy 'Cream Peony' are marvellous when planted in large groups mixed with other different coloured poppies or in combination with airy, finer flowers. They go well with most perennials, from peonies to larkspurs and flatter the romantic blooms of rose bushes or the sweet-smelling clusters of dwarf lilacs, for example. The dynamic foliage of grasses contrast with their coarser texture whilst fennel enhances it. This annual plant, like the cosmos, has no equivalent for occupying the open sunny spaces between annuals or large perennials such as sunflowers, whose flowers take over later in the season.

Once the flowering period is over, the fruit remains, providing a precious asset for dry bouquets, but also the poppy straw, which is often perceived in more wild areas as a majestic element of the garden or a somewhat enigmatic remnant of summer.