Garden Spotlight: Icelandic Poppy

You know that feeling you get when you see someone and you are simultaneously aware of how ridiculously attracted you are to them and how much trouble they will bring into your life.

I recently had an encounter like this last week at the garden store.  Not with a person, but with a plant. I fell in love at first sight with a poppy.  An Icelandic Poppy. I saw it and the way the six o'clock light filtered through it's almost glowing pink papery petals took my breath away. At first standing there in the store googling it from my phone, I decided it was a bad idea since experts advised that it did not do well in extreme heat *ahem* Oklahoma summer *ahem*. But when I saw it again later I decided that my attraction to this plant was too great, and that I was going to take it home anyway.  I planned to put it in a pot so that during these cooler sunny spring days it can sun itself on the patio, and in the hot-as-hell late July days I can move it to a cooler spot in the garden, or even into the house if it needs a reprieve from the heat.

Several days later it looked like this.

The multiple buds give me hope. But I have a funny feeling that it was a good thing that I took so many pictures of the darned ethereal thing, because they will probably last longer.

So, I guess this is just another lesson in the perils of impulsive passion based decision making.  But I enjoyed the journey and am slightly wiser today than I was a week ago, so I am still counting this as a garden success.