Poppy love

Val looks at the benefits of growing poppies in her garden and the history behind the Shirley poppy strain

- Val

I grow a lot of snowdrops in my garden, so I have to find plants to distract the eye from the foliage once it starts to fade. I almost always use annuals and I’m very fond of annual and biennial poppies because they’re a thrifty way of plugging the gaps if you save your own seeds.

Poppies are notoriously generous and one plant could yield 10,000-60,000 seeds, so once the flowers have finished most of the poppies get pulled up. Pulling one of 10 out, or cutting back, is a good rule for plants that are too generous with their seeds.