A sea of white poppies along the sidewalk

Last year, I had the opportunity to visit the jaw-droppingly beautiful garden of garden designer Cricket Riley in Walnut Creek. One element I particularly loved was a sea of white-flowering California poppies in front of her house. The creamy hues of the poppy flowers contrasted perfectly with the pale blue of the Agave ovatifolia. I immediately knew that I wanted to do something similar in our garden.

Eschscholzia californica ‘Buttermilk’ in Cricket Riley’s garden

Agave ovatifolia surrounded by ‘Buttermilk’ poppies

I wasn’t able to find seeds of the poppy variety Cricket used, ‘Buttermilk’, so I bought what was available, ‘White Linen’. Just to be on the safe side, I opted for a packet of 2000 seeds. I had no idea what the germination rate typically is, so I’m sure I went a bit overboard.

I scattered the seeds in the front of the sidewalk bed last October and by December many had germinated. Our fairly wet winter was ideal for growth – maybe too ideal: In some spots, the poppies were on the verge of engulfing plants many times their size. Smaller plants, like cacti I’d planted a year ago, were swallowed up completely.

While the regular orange California poppies were in flower everywhere else, our ‘White Linen’ poppies were all leaves. I was getting ready to throw in the towel and declare this experiment a failure when a string of warm days a couple of weeks ago finally got things going. Now the sidewalk bed looks like this:

Up close, you see that newly opened petals are a very light creamy yellow, fading to almost pure white as they age. Very pretty.

Poppies are enthusiastic reseeders, shooting their payload far and wide. My goal is to pull out about ¾ of the poppies after flowering and let the rest go to seed. That should ensure a manageable crop for next year. As much as I enjoy them, I don’t want thousands of them devouring the other plants in this bed. If I feel particularly ambitious, I might even collect some seeds to give away or use elsewhere.

For now, though, I’m enjoying the show. It’s almost as nice as what I saw in Cricket Riley’s garden.

© Gerhard Bock, 2024. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.