Selected Sun Lovers – Poppies and Phlox
Poppies are plants that are always associated with cottage gardens, especially the giant oriental poppy, Papaver orientale. This is a tough resilient character that will flourish in almost any soil providing that it is in full sun. Attaining a height of a metre (yard) or more, the typical oriental poppy has dark red silky blossoms with a black centre.
These are held on hairy stems above coarse bristly foliage. The flowers are followed by handsome, pepper-pot seed heads which can be cut and dried for winter decoration. Cultivars of P. orientale are legion, but the double ‘Salmon Glow’, orange-scarlet ‘Marcus Perry’ and the single-flowered ‘Perry’s White’ are all reliable. ‘Allegro Vivace’ is a dwarf red flowered kind with a dark centre that rarely grows more than 75 cm (2-1/2 ft) high and one of the few poppies that comes absolutely true from seed. Unless you want mixed colours, seed raising is not a good idea. Root cuttings taken during the winter are the only way of successfully increasing named kinds.
Phlox can be increased in a similar way. Truly moisture-loving perennials, the various cultivars of the border phlox, Phlox paniculata, do best in a cool summer, but must be grown in the open if they are to flourish. Dependable sorts are ‘Balmoral’, lavender, ‘Brigadier’, red and ‘White Admiral’. These all produce magnificent scented flower heads, unlike ‘Norah Leigh’ which is mostly cultivated for its variegated foliage; bright contrasting leaves on rather skinny stems, a plant that clearly does not belong in the cottage garden but which would like to suggest otherwise.
Daylilies certainly belong in the tangled informality of the mixed border, providing an excellent contrast to the later flowering phlox, but enjoying the same situation and soil conditions. These provide a marvellous display for much of the summer. Even though each individual blossom only lasts for a single day, there are so many that the show is continuous. Trumpet-shaped and carried amongst clumps of strap-shaped leaves, colours vary according to cultivar from deep purple-red through orange and yellow to pink. Try the old-fashioned Hemerocallis lilio-asphodelus, better known now as H. flava, with its clear yellow scented blossoms on wiry stems and carried amongst neat tufts of bright green foliage. Together with the richly fragrant citron-yellow, H. citrina, it makes a duo which for elegance and simplicity are unsurpassed by any of the modern cultivars.
