Finally! My poppies were late coming out this year, but they’re finally coming out just in time for California Poppy Day on April 6th next week.
I took this picture of one of the poppies out back this morning. Click on the image to enlarge.
Some information on the California poppy from WikiPedia:
The California poppy is the California state flower. It was selected as the state flower by the California State Floral Society in December 1890, winning out over the Mariposa lily (genus Calochortus) and the Matilija poppy (Romneya coulteri) by a landslide, but the state legislature did not make the selection official until 1903. Its golden blooms were deemed a fitting symbol for the Golden State. April 6 of each year is designated “California Poppy Day.”
California poppy leaves were used medicinally by Native Americans, and the pollen was used cosmetically. The seeds are used in cooking.
The Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve is located in northern Los Angeles County, California. At the peak of the blooming season, orange petals seem to cover all 1,745 acres (7 km²) of the reserve.
Poppppppppppies.
Here in the Great White Frozen Northeast my tulips have just begun to poke their heads out of the ground. Tulips are my wife’s favorite vegetable (that’s how the woodchucks and deer see them) and I planted 60 of them last fall. Dang squirrels immediately started to dig the bulbs up. If these don’t survive the onslaught of hungry varmints that I am not allowed to shoot, I’ll plant something poisonous next year.
Our local bulb predators are squirrels, raccoons, skunks and opossums. The poppies come from seeds, so we just need to get them deep enough into the soil that the little birdies don’t get them. I put the bulbs in pots on the patio where the dog keeps most critters at bay.
Poppppppies – sounds like a line from ‘The Wizard of OZ.’
Bulb predator. Sounds like someone attacking your lamps, knocking them to the carpet and strangling the daylights out of the three way. Is there such a thing as a serial bulb predator? Is it the 75 watt setting that drives them crazy?
Not the 75 watt ones – they seem to want to destroy those little curly ones filled with greenhouse gasses.