That's beautiful.

Found one
Iris La Scala and Beauti of Blessingham oriental Poppy.
It's a real stretch of the imagination for me to accept the red beards with the OP bloom but my reaction was "so-so"

Yep, but maybe if there were more iris for more beards?

Hey Arlene.I am hoping for more stems this year.The iris is in season 2 in 2014.

I agree with Arlene - no big surprise there.

Also, if the poppies were closer to the iris, it would help. I can still see the echo and enjoy it.

pirl said:I agree with Arlene - no big surprise there.

Another one that hurts my eyes! White is lovely in the right spot but just doesn't blend well in this spot. I'll have to tag and remove each white one in 2014.

What will you add in there place? Lovely lily.

Probably more Tango lilies. I love how they look and how they blend with the other colors in that area. A dozen or more Dimension could solve the problem but the yellow and white should go.

Love the deep red with that. Sounds good.

I like to think I can tag each one to remove it but that's wishful thinking and totally dependent on weather and energy level at the time they bloom.

Arlene, this is a great thread idea! I so often deal with this, and like you, I find the pinks are real booger to work with- especially when working with mail order plants. When peachy pinks end up in my intended bed of blue-pinks, it drives me nuts!

I don't have a picture of it, but my latest was an Oriental Poppy that I've waited for 3 years to bloom. It was supposed to be salmon pink, and is planted in a bed of mostly pastel colors. Finally bloomed last year, among the blush Peonies, lilac Irises, and soft coral Roses....yep, it's the brightest scarlet imaginable! My head nearly exploded, LOL

Good grief Neal.
Websites often "shop" the photos to make pink look like eggplant or dark purple. No how could they have edited a pink to red. Bad labeling is my guess.

Well, this was a gift from another gardener, and at a time I had no other Oriental Poppies, so I'm still happy to have it and wouldn't for the world mention it to her. I just would have planted it with the "fire colors" had I known. And to her credit, I believe she had purchased it from a local nursery, and hadn't seen it bloom, so the mislabling was likely on their end.

The tough part is that Poppies aren't the easiest plants to transplant! I'm curious, have you ever moved one? I wonder if chances of success are better as the plant is going dormant just after blooming?

Thanks, Neal. The pink family is the worst for color harmony in the garden. Your experience with mail order companies is not uncommon and I see it as a problem with the photos online. These companies cannot possibly grow and photograph each flower so they have to rely on photos supplied to them. We, the customers, end up with big disappointments.

This was the worst "pink" ever and I did dig it out and pot it up separately because the label was certainly wrong! I purchased it locally, as a bulb, so had to rely on the packaging.



The classic was of dealing with it is to remove the offending flower but more will appear and with a poppy you've waited for three years, it isn't a good answer.

Pink in the coleus family is a totally different pink than in the caladium family and petunias are another source of conflict. So much of color harmony is trial and error.

What was your solution for your color conflict, Neal?

Neal: I'm sorry I completely misunderstood your post.
Transplanting poppies isnt hard and as you suspected dormant period is key.
There are varieties that do better than others when moved.
I have a Coral Reef I cant seem to eliminate in one area.I leave behind small root pieces and they are new plants the next year.
Dormant here is when the plant looks dead ( late summer ) but before the new winter crown grows. Use a long spade as the roots are long and hard to get the whole thing. You are younger than I so it shouldnt be a problem.

Sometimes I guess it is actually a blessing to not have a designer bone in your body. I often say I wish I had some sense of design when I see how beautiful other peoples gardens are, but heck now I realize I get to enjoy all those eyesores everyone else complains about. I just see pretty flowers, instead of clashing colors.

If you love what you see and take pride in planting ,that is a great think.Its what gardening is all about.

Arlene, often I'm so bothered that I'll dig up and move the offending plant at the worst possible time of year. Or in some cases, they become a lovely bouquet in the house. That's what I did a couple of years ago when some 'Shocking' Lilies (yellow with a red center band) bloomed in an area of purples and blues. They were planted by a deceased friend who lived in this house before me (and now happily reside in the bed of hot colors in the back yard), and I had totally forgotten them. The blooms and fragrance were easy to appreciate inside
I haven't remedied the Poppy issue yet, so I guess I'll have to suffer through it again, as I do really love Poppies, and thankfully (in this case) their bloom time is relatively short. I'll take Jo Ann's advice and move it this summer, I suppose I better do that as the leaves are dying off, or I won't be able to find it.

Jo Ann, no need to apologize, as catalog and on line pics are most often the culprit, that's for sure.

Seedfork, sometimes being design oriented is as much a curse as a blessing, LOL. I'm a floral designer by trade, so it's ingrained in my nature. Geez, as good as I've been in the past at ignoring weeds, one would think I could ignore the clash, LOL.

Neal: yup,move poppy when leaves are really brown and crispy.