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Article: The Unforgettable Poppy; Lesser-Known Varieties Are Worthy Plants
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- June 13, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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With cups of crinkled petals in the most brilliant hues,
poppies are flowers that memory enshrines.
The famous wild poppies that cover the fields of Flanders are
celebrated for their intense, vivid red. It is the color of the
blood spilled there by so many French, British and German soldiers
in World War I. Or, as the poet John McCrae put it: "In Flanders
fields the poppies blow/ Between the crosses, row on row."
Better known as a Shirley poppy or corn poppy, Papaver rhoeas
on these shores is grown not as a wildflower (though the plant is
included in many non-native wildflower mixes), much less a weed (a
widely held view of the plant in Europe). But it is a valued
ornamental, ...