We all know the Common Poppy – it still occasionally paints arable fields red, is Norfolk’s ‘County Flower’, and is the symbol of remembrance – but there are around 250 species of poppy worldwide. The Poppy Garden has been designed to showcase some of these, from the well-known Californian Poppy and Welsh Poppy to less frequently grown species such as the Californian Tree Poppy, Plumed Poppy, the exotic Snow Poppy and the legendary Himalayan Blue Poppy. Wherever they come from, and whatever their name, they are all a joy to have in the garden.
The poppy family (technically the Papaveraceae) is surprisingly varied. As well as plants that everyone would recognise as a poppy, it includes the Bleeding-hearts Dicentra and the Corydalises, both familiar garden plants, and the fumitories Fumaria, weeds of gardens and arable fields whose tiny flowers repay a closer look. Greater Celandine, a common weed around towns and villages, is also a poppy and not at all related to Lesser Celandine, which is a buttercup.
