Break the rules of good taste and have fun with poppies.

Byline: By Ron McParlin

We have all learned the vocabulary of "style" and "good taste" and in recent years everyone pushes the "lifestyle" angle. I am as guilty as everyone else.

But I am also very particular about what goes into my garden and those of other people. There comes a time when you have to question your choices in order to prevent everything from becoming too predictable. A garden needs "friction" in order to create a little excitement.

Poppies, for instance, are often the litmus-test in the good taste debate. Many admit to hating their vulgarity. Others, however, enjoy poppies for their sense of fun, bold shapes and sensational colours.

Poppies are indeed good to use as contrast - because, in truth, we have learned how to balance them with the "good taste" plants around them. Good taste is easiest to enforce with an agreed palette, be it themed in terms of mood, texture, form or colour.

For me, poppies are among the most alluring (although ephemeral) of summer's flowers. Some 50 different species encompass hardy annuals, biennials and herbaceous perennials. They range from diminutive annuals from the high mountain screes and the sub-Arctic, to the familiar scarlet poppy that once adorned English cornfields and roadside verges. And they include the glaucous-leafed opium poppy of Greece and Asia Minor, to the big, busty perennial poppies with hairy leaves and stalks, known as Papaver orientale.

Oriental poppies are the most popular perennial types and it is these that have particularly excited plant breeders in recent years. The results have produced some sturdy cultivars, such as the huge-flowered, salmon-pink Effendi, fringed Hula Hula, silvery-white Grave Witwe, and orange-toned Leuchtfever. Desirable characteristics that are being bred into newer strains include plants with shorter, sturdier flower stems, more upwardly facing blooms and a longer flowering period.

An American flower breeder has been taking this work further with Super Poppies - introduced here in 2000. Super Poppies are the results of crossing some of the characteristics of other poppy species such as P atlanticum, P caliphonicum, P somniferum, P rupifragum into other oriental types. And the results are very impressive. As well as an enhanced colour range, these new Orientals have thicker (and therefore longer-lasting) flower petals as well as a remarkable ability to repeat the show when their first performance is over.

Super Poppies have slightly different leaves to those of the Orientals and some produce more than one flower per stem. Their flowers can last from 10-14 days - and that has been unheard of before in the poppy world. Exclusive rights to the Super Poppies series belong to Water Meadow Nursery in Hampshire (which also holds the national collection of P orientale).

The oriental poppies generally flower from mid-May until July. If the plants are dead-headed when finished they sometimes produce a second flowering in September.

They do tend to die down early in the season, generally leaving a nasty gap in the border by midsummer. However, by careful juxtaposition, they can be placed in association with other plants that will grow up and flower later and thus help hide the gaps - Japanese anemones, heleniums, and Michaelmas daisies come to mind. They also associate well with Iris sibirica, tall bearded iris and border phlox. They are big enough to hold their own among grasses so can be used in prairie- style planting.

Container -grown oriental poppies can be planted any time this month. Established plants can be divided now and replanted.

All poppies like a sunny spot. They like fertile soil that is free-draining and humus enriched to retain moisture. They also do well in clay soils.

Gaudy yet graceful, stunning but subtle, the many members of the poppy family have so much to offer. So approach your garden with gusto and break all the rules and have fun doing it.

* Ron McParlin is a horticultural consultant, garden designer and landscape contractor. He may be emailed at mcparlin. [e-mail] or tel [phone].