The Welsh poppy is a charmer
ONE of the prettiest weeds in the back garden, one which alternates between being my joy and my greatest torment, is the Welsh Poppy.
It succeeds so well in the fast-draining acid soil that it seeds itself everywhere.
When it blooms, it holds a profusion of bright yellow flowers on thin slender stalks above bright lime-green leaves.
Left where it can be grown unmolested, it is a real pleasure, a charmer. However, it can also be a sneaky operator.
It lurks, often in the half-light, under shrubs and after it’s deceptively pretty lemon or orange saucers are over, it camouflages itself expertly by becoming slimmer in appearance.
It looks inoffensive, charming as outlined, but miss one seed-head and you can be sure of yet another crop of seedlings sinking their extremely deep taproots into your best perennials and through ornamental grasses.
The only sensible approach is to eliminate them as they come into bud or flower.
Deadhead them or use chemicals.
Having made up the weed killer, add a drop of washing-up liquid then go around dabbing the pale-green rosettes with the wetted sponge.
Avoid getting the mixture onto any adjoining ornamentals.
Like its much-prized and highly sought-after cousin, the Himalayan Blue Poppy, (Meconopsis ) the Welsh poppy, prefers a humus-rich, acid-type soil which is kept moist in summer.
On the other hand, it refuses point blank to grow in waterlogged soil or where the drainage is slow and sluggish.
The blooms of all poppies (Papaver family) are ephemeral and, unfortunately, so are the plants themselves.
Stock will have to be regularly replenished from seed or seedlings and while the Welsh poppy does this without as much as a hint or suggestion, that extremely beautiful Blue Poppy certainly needs coaxing and more than a modicum of knowledge on reproduction using its dust-like seed.
For all that, anyone with the Welsh poppy will gladly let you have a plant or two, but be warned, I advise, of its sneakiness.
See More: Featured, Papavar, Welsh Poppy
