Orange Horned Poppy 'Auranticum'

The poppy like flowers with papery, brilliant orange petals open freely from late spring and throughout summer. The blooms are followed by long, narrow, curved, horn like seed heads which make a nice and lasting garden feature.

The deeply lobed, blue green leaves of the Orange Horned Poppy are thick and leathery, with a wax like coating. They grow 15-30cm long and form a dense rosette at the base of the plant.

The Orange Horned Poppy is dry tolerant and will grow well in poor soils. It is well suited to coastal locations and loves a sunny spot.

It is a short lived perennial that will set viable seed for generations to come. You could also collect and sow or share.

There is a poem about this particular Poppy, which grows native, along the coastline of Mediterranean Europe:

A poppy grows upon the shore,

Bursts her twin cups in summer late:

Her leaves are glaucus-green and hoar,

Her petals yellow, delicate.

She has no lovers like the red,

That dances with the noble corn:

Her blossoms on the waves are shed,

Where she stands shivering and forlorn.

Robert Bridges (Britain's Poet laureate 1913-1930)