I always make New Year’s resolutions. I also tend to make resolutions at the beginning of each month and the beginning of each day. This sounds like a ritualized form of punishment, but I find that making resolutions is a little like panning for gold—most of what turns up is useless, but occasionally you find a small nugget or at least a large flake. A few small nuggets of change occasionally turn up in the process of panning for resolutions, and those nuggets make the practice worthwhile.
This year many gardeners have made resolutions to take up one or both of the most fashionable endeavors in the gardening world right now: bee and chicken keeping. Bees smell better and take less space, but chickens provide useful manure. I respect chickens and bees, but I am not ready to assume responsibility for a clucking, buzzing menagerie. Instead, I will focus my energies on two plants—dahlias and poppies.
I went through a period where I disdained dahlias, but about ten years ago I saw the light. All dahlias make excellent cut flowers, which is a great reason to grow them. My stumbling block was always a dislike of the enormous “dinner plate” varieties. The dahlia resurgence in popular magazines and books convinced me that there were plenty of fabulous dahlias on the market that were considerably smaller than babies’ heads. I have been a changed gardener ever since.
I started growing the dahlias in containers on the porch, because the rambunctious raccoons that live at my neighbors’ place tended to dig in the pots if they were left in the garden beds. In trying to foil their nefarious designs, I assumed that they were essentially lazy. I figured they wouldn’t want to exhaust themselves seeking sport on the porch when they could wreak havoc in the yard with much less effort.
Then I found out that the raccoons were perfectly willing to climb the porch steps. I managed to enjoy my dahlias last summer, but only after rescuing the disinterred tubers several times after nocturnal raccoon excavation.
This year I am going to plant the dahlias directly in the ground. I don’t know if it will confuse the raccoons, but it will certainly be easier than growing the plants in pots. I like the time-honored varieties, like ‘Claire de Lune,’ with its single row of soft yellow petals; ‘Nonette,’ a double, with apricot blooms; and the white ‘Prinzessen Irene von Preussen.’ I am going to buy more dahlias than I normally do and plant them in clumps of three, just like all the other showy flowers. I am hoping that they will bloom with wild abandon while the latest generation of raccoons scales the porch steps in search of various forbidden fruits. Next summer they will finally know the meaning of the words “exercise in futility,” because geraniums are all they will find.
I will also have lots of poppies, billowing everywhere in the beds. For years I have grown the prolific little California poppies—Eschscholzia californica—which reseed vigorously. I had forgotten how easy it is to grow other kinds of annual poppies, like the red corn poppy of Flanders Field fame; or the decorative Papaver somniferum, which comes in a wide range of lovely colors.
Folk wisdom has always held that the best way to “plant” annual poppies is to fling the tiny seeds on snowy patches at the end of winter. The seeds don’t mind the cold and the sun melts the snow, simultaneously warming the soil enough for the poppies to sprout.
Of course many of us don’t have a lot of melting snow at the end of winter—at least in some years—so what is a believer in folk wisdom to do?
The best way is also the easiest. Pick a sunny patch of bare earth. Mix the contents of your poppy seed packet with an equal amount of sand, if you have it. Sand is not strictly necessary, but helps distribute the tiny seeds better. Spread the seeds or seed/sand mixture over the patch of soil. Tamp down with something flat and dry—a piece of scrap lumber or the bottom of a large plant pot. Poppy seeds need light to germinate, so do not cover them with soil. Water regularly if it doesn’t rain. Seedlings should begin sprouting within a week or two
If your poppies are happy, they will most likely self-seed for years to come. I am going to buy a pastel mix and plant them in all the empty spots in the garden. With even a modicum of luck, I will have poppies galore.
I am aiming for the effect I saw several years ago at the Well Sweep Herb Farm in northwestern New Jersey. One of the nursery’s display gardens featured scores of soft lavender annual poppies that sprouted wherever they pleased throughout the beds of herbs. The poppies, being even wiser than raccoons, had chosen just the right locations. With the help of sun, rain and the alignment of the planets, I hope they will do the same for me.
Local nurseries will soon have their seed racks out, and poppies will certainly be among the offerings. For a good selection, you can also try Select Seeds, 180 Stickney Hill Road, Union, CT 06076; (800) 684-0395; www.selectseeds.com. Free catalog.
Heirloom dahlias are available from Old House Gardens, 536 Third Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48103; (734) 995-1486; www.oldhousegardens.com. Catalog $2.00.