Oriental poppies are among the showiest of perennial flowers that bloom around Memorial Day, and a garden workhorse tolerant of many growing conditions.
Their size and intense color take center stage for a few weeks in the garden, though the symbolic importance endures much longer.
Patriotic Poppies
Like roses, poppies are flowers generations of Americans have used to remember those who died serving their country.
Red paper poppies hand-made by veterans are distributed each May by members of the American Legion and American Legion Auxiliary. The poppy since 1920 has served as the organization's national symbol of remembrance.
Poppies are celebrated in poems and art, including a famous 1928 painting by American artist Georgia O’Keeffe.
Planted in the right place, poppies are resilient and keep producing late-spring blooms for many years, author Tracy Disabato-Aust writes in her 2008 book 50 High-Impact, Low-Care Garden Plants ($16.95 Timber Press).
This sun-loving plant grows 2-3 feet tall with a 2-foot spread. Though many poppies produce large red flowers with black centers May through June, cultivars such as Peter Pan and Lauren's Lilac produce blooms in shades of orange, pink, white, violet and salmon.
Rooted in History
The custom of remembering our war dead with flowers got a boost from General John A. Logan, who had risen to the rank of Union Army general and commander of volunteer forces during the Civil War.
As head of the post-war veteran’s organization the Grand Army of the Republic, he issued General Orders No. 11, establishing May 30 as Decoration Day to honor the Civil War dead.
This later became a national holiday called Memorial Day. It was first observed May 30, 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. Poppies were used to represent sacrifice.
Poppies were the flower of choice in May, 2005 when England’s Prince Charles placed a wreath of blood-red poppies at the Cenotaph memorial in honor of some 260,000 Britons who died fighting Nazi Germany and its allies during World War II.
Resilient Garden Soldiers
Some gardeners grow concerned when Oriental poppy plants go into slow decline after blooming. This is perfectly natural, Disabato-Aust writes. Once they are finished blooming, the plant develops a hole at the base as its fringed green foliage declines and disappears, returning later in the season.
She recommends combining poppies with Siberian iris, perennial salvia and blue false indigo to fill in when poppies are done blooming.
Poppies do not like prolonged heat and humidity, so are best avoided in southern states. Oriental poppies are not targeted by deer, are generally disease and pest resistant, do not require deadheading, staking or pruning and tolerate drought.
A War Memorial
Though beautiful, poppies inextricably are linked with some of the most murderous trench warfare of World War I.
The slaughter is memorialized in an anguished poem by Canadian army surgeon John McCrae: “In Flanders fields the poppies blow between the crosses, row on row….’’
It ends: “We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.’’
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