Papaver somniferum Frosted Salmon - Opium Poppy seeds

Papaver 'Frosted Salmon' is a variety of annual poppy with peony-like flowers, fully double, all frilly, offering a beautiful range of salmon pink, raspberry pink, and peach pink tones. Opulent flowers that bloom in summer, at the end of tall, sturdy stems emerging from decorative, wavy and cut foliage, of a soft blue-green. Its fruits are decorative when dried. The opium poppy can be sown directly in open ground, in spring, or early autumn in regions that are not too cold.

The annual poppy 'Frosted Salmon' is a horticultural variety dating back to 1993, obtained by Sahin, classified in the category of opium poppies with peony-like flowers. All poppies belong to the Papaveraceae family. 'Frosted Salmon' descends from the closely related Papaver "paeoniflorum" to P. somniferum. The latter is found in Asian mountains, but also in Europe, on the limestone terrains frequented by poppies. This plant, probably native to the regions between the Mediterranean and Asia Minor, has given rise to a multitude of varieties cultivated for ornamental purposes over a long period. Its life cycle is annual: the plant germinates, blooms, produces seeds, and dies in less than a year.

The 'Frosted Salmon' poppy has glaucous, ornamental foliage, with wavy edges, composed of beautiful lobed and elliptical leaves showing a notched and toothed border. From this 30 to 45 cm wide clump of foliage, remarkable solitary flowers emerge from June to August on tall stems, 90 cm above the ground. Reaching 10 to 12 cm in diameter, they are very double and spherical, formed by countless frilly petals. The flower's centre is almost invisible. The flowering is attractive to pollinating insects and gives way to a characteristic ornamental fruit filled with small black seeds which takes on slate blue highlights when drying, changing with the light, due to the crystallized wax film that protects it. Opium poppies have a taproot that does not tolerate transplantation well, which is why it is preferable to sow them in place. They are hardy annual plants and early autumn sowings are capable of withstanding not too harsh winters. In this case, flowering is earlier in spring.

Opium poppies are at home in English or romantic gardens, in cottage gardens and neglected gardens and quickly and effortlessly create infinite delicate waves of flowers, moving in their vivid, dark, or pastel colours, dancing on the foam of their foliage. Simply scatter the seeds on well-prepared soil among other plants, along borders or in flower beds. While not very long-lasting when cut, the flowers of the 'Frosted Salmon' Poppy are wonderful when planted en masse, with mulleins (Verbascum), among the foliage of grasses, or even with English shrub roses. This annual plant, like love-in-a-mist, has no equivalent for filling empty spaces, between annuals or late-flowering perennials such as giant asters that take over, in full sun.