Sun Loving Annuals That Make Your Heart Sing
Ornamental and Statuesque, Sun Loving Annuals Are Popping!
A couple of months ago a friend and I went to Annie’s Annuals in Richmond which was already in full bloom, long before we had even seen any spring growth here in the North Bay. Among the sun loving annuals I bought were three poppy seedlings. A little while later a friend gave me a bulb in a pot which had some Bread Seed poppies tagging along and which I planted out all over the garden, along with a couple I’d grown from seed.
These sun loving annuals are now in full bloom in the garden and I can’t get enough of them, all the more because their flowers are so short lived; a day and a half if I’m lucky. Then their velveteen petals blow away and I’m left with the wonderful seed pods and the bloated buds of those flowers yet to come.
We started off with the bread seed poppies with their single violet and purple petals. They immediately had the bees buzzing about in a feeding frenzy. As their common name suggests, these are the poppies that all poppy seeds that you find on bread and in Marge Wallace’s delicious poppy cake come from.
Then came the first of Annie’s sun loving annuals which produced the biggest, blousiest buds I’ve ever seen. As they burst out of their green coats I discovered that they were double versions of the bread seed poppies, peony poppies, with the same coloring, violet and dark purple. As doubles, the flowers lasted a day or so longer than the singles and as they dropped, the petals formed a carpet around the stem of the plant.
Meanwhile the other two poppy plants had fallen over, so great were their weights. I had tried staking them earlier but they laughed at my efforts and lay down anyway. Actually, I think we should train opium poppies to grow sideways because flowers spring out all along the stem if they are lying down.
A few days later my double was joined by pure white, single fringed poppies with pale yellow centers. There was no holding the joyous bees back from this feast.!
The thing about some flowers is that you just can’t capture their beauty sufficiently on camera, especially not on a cell phone camera which is all I have been using over the past few months. Cell phone cameras are great and convenient but just don’t capture the depth of color and detail in flowers.
Last week it was my birthday and I was delighted to be given a great little camera by my lovely husband. I went for a Panasonic Lumix because it takes great pictures and you can zoom in really far without losing quality.
I still have to work out what all the settings mean but I have been in a frenzy of flower photographing lately, just in time to capture my white poppies, the ultimate bee attracting plants, and my latest bloomer, with the deepest, darkest burgundy petals you can get without being black. They are just gorgeous. I keep walking out to look at them as I know they’ll be gone by the end of the weekend. Today I have six out at the same time and it’s almost too much for the senses!
Yesterday I was trying to capture them on camera all through the day, just to try and do them justice, using different settings (which I know nothing about) and taking photos from different distances. In the end, my best shots were taken from at least twelve feet away, using my zoom in the mid morning.
My husband took up the challenge and took some others, using the same camera in the evening. We’re both mesmerized and already in mourning for when these sun loving annuals disappear. Sometimes you just don’t want to let a good thing go.
Happy gardening and please don’t forget your sunscreen. There’s so much skin cancer about, you must protect your skin.
By the way, here is a link to a list of gopher resistant plants: http://www.groundcoversandgardening.com/gopher resistant plants.
If you want to buy plants that deer probably won’t eat, look here.
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