Shirley Poppy "Fairy Mix"
Exquisite long-blooming double poppies like crumpled silk in glowing pink, red, lavender, white--many with contrasting edging on their petals. These are so easy! They love regular garden soil and can make themselves at home among vegetables, in containers, or in flower borders, blooming for weeks and weeks from spring into summer. Shirley poppies are the cultivated descendants of the wild wheatfield poppies of Europe, and while they are larger and fancier, they are just as easy.
These bloom longer than their cousins the somniferum (breadseed) poppies and are more delicate-looking. (Though they are in fact quite hardy.) They make a rosette or frosty green foliage followed by slender stems holding the 3-4" blooms. Plants reach 2 to 3 feet tall, and 2" across. They cast little shade, and make good companion plants, or can be massed for stunning effect. Do thin the plants to 1' apart for the best show.