Icelandic Poppies

i love these poppies / their fragile petals (only Mother Nature cd dream up such a delicacy) and lovely range of colours from pale peaches and yellows and creams to a deep deep orange

i grew them in window boxes or on the terrace of the apartimento in Rome / sometimes i grew nasturtiums or multicoloured anemones / i often thought i was the only person in Rome who didnt grow the ubiquitous ivy geraniums

last spring in California i bought six icelandic poppy plants at the budding stage / decided to forego choosing colours to just getting some young enough to make the trip back to Utah

they did okay here and eventually bloomed pale peach and yellow and cream / there was one orange one

four of them survived the winter here / heavily mulched

the first one to bloom was spectacular orange/gold/tangerine colours with ruffled petals

i took many pictures of it (i just updated iPhoto and iLife5 which apparently makes it more complicated to add a picture to the homepage / patience, my dear, i tell myself)

darn lucky too as the first time i ran my water program for the season a heavy spray of water nearly knocked this plant senseless / i carefully moved it / poppies hate to be transplanted / she seems to be doing okay now / this morning she has put forth another ruffly bloom

meanwhile the other plants are catching up with the blooming and Get This :

so far every flower is bright orange

yes, even the plants that i recall as peach or yellow or cream

now dont that just beat all ?