I’m not sure why, exactly, but I decided to grow several different types of poppies from seed this year. Lauren’s Grape poppy was one of my favorite varieties.

With deep purple flowers, this poppy variety was pleasing to the eye – but also to our local pollinators, affording me many pleasurable moments snapping up photos of both bees and beauty.

The plants have an upright growth form. Flowers don’t last long (about a day, I think), but when the petals fall, they leave behind these lovely globular seed heads.

Poppy petals are delicate and wispy, fluttering in even the slightest breeze.

They have silvery green foliage and pair nicely with plains coreopsis.

But my favorite part of growing these was watching the bees flock to them, almost as if they were drunk with pleasure.

They also looked lovely with marigolds growing nearby.

And even when the blooms had mostly stopped, the plants still looked gorgeous, with an interesting structure.

And Barnie the cat thought they were pretty cool too.

What do you think about these flowers? Aren’t they stunners? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section.

Want to see more pretty flowers?