Your ultimate guide to Growing poppies

From annuals to perennials, with options for shade or sun, blowsy blooms and sculptural seed heads – there really are poppies for all purposes, says Louise Curley

- Louise Curley

AT this time of year the classic red poppy is a potent symbol of remembrance for lives lost and affected by war. Field poppies aren’t the only type of poppy, however – in fact, there are about 70 different species in the genus Papaver, and more still within the family Papaveraceae. These include the highly prized blue Himalayan poppies (Meconopsis) and some more unusual plants that look nothing like your typical poppy but are still related. Some are annuals, some biennials and others perennials, and most are incredibly easy to grow.

The appeal lies in their delicacy, the petals like tissue paper or crushed silk, in a range of colours. Some have fabulously sculptural seed pods, too, that add another element to a planting scheme and continue to look good as the garden moves into autumn and winter.

There are poppies with blowsy blooms made up of multiple layers of petals; others have simple open-centred flowers that are ideal for pollinators –bees love opium and oriental poppies. Then there’s Meconopsis – these have a reputation for being tricky to grow, but in a moist, acid-neutral soil with some shade, they’re certainly worth a try.

Options for all

Whatever your style of garden, there’s a poppy for you. Whether it’s a shady woodland spot where Himalayan poppies and the Welsh poppy will be at home, a cottage-garden border – the perfect setting for the big and bold orientals – a sun-baked gravel garden in which the attractive blue-green foliage and colourful blooms of Californian poppies will thrive, or a wilder spot Where to buywhere field poppies can be sown alongside grasses and other annuals to create a cornfield-style meadow. There are even options suited to rock gardens or containers – try the alpine and Iceland poppies, but ensure they have good drainage.