Adding annual poppies to the bed

Early Spring in the Cottage Garden

Adding Annual Poppies to the Bed

From the Cottage Garden in mid-April, we're going to look at how to use annuals to extend a border's season of interest.

Perennials are the backbone of a border, but annuals, bulbs and biennials inject almost instant colour to give a longer season of succession. It's best to use them in little gaps between perennials, around ferns, etc., where they can give an early hit of colour until the perennials grow up around them.

Sowing and Planting the Poppies

• I plant field poppies around emerging clumps of Bidens, which will ultimately be 4-5ft tall but need something added until they take over. The poppies will come up quickly and flower from around May to June, and then we'll pull them out.
• We sow these in late September or early October the previous year.
• Autumn sowing means the root system is well-developed by planting time in spring.
• In some areas, we let poppies self-seed, which saves time. But they don't always come up in the right place, so raising plants to plant out where we want them gives control.
• Plant just a little deeper than the height of the pot, and water in.

Plant Directory

Bidens aurea and its cultivars

Arizona beggar's ticks

Half-hardy herbaceous short-lived perennial

Asteraceae

Lupinus species and cultivars

Lupins

Hardy or half-hardy annuals, short-lived perennials or herbaceous perennials

Fabaceae

Narcissus 'More and More'

Daffodil 'More and More'

Hardy bulbous perennial

Amaryllidaceae

Papaver cambricum

Welsh poppy

Hardy herbaceous perennial

Papaveraceae

Papaver rhoeas

Common poppy, field poppy

Hardy annual

Papaveraceae

Verbascum bombyciferum 'Polarsommer'

Broussa mullein 'Polarsommer'

Hardy evergreen biennial or short-lived perennial

Scrophulariaceae