The Mysterious Plant....Mommy DID Figure It Out!

I love summer! I might start each blog post with that sentiment until Winter begins again. The warmth, the thunder storms, the plants growing...it's all so great!
One of the plants in my yard had me thrown. It appeared to be a poppy of some sort because the buds were more like pods. The plant itself were just so large that it was hard to imagine it being a poppy plant. Well, my first intuition was right! It's a Papaver orientale or an Oriental Poppy. There are several varieties, but ours is dark orange-ish red with a center that is so dark purple it almost looks black. The bush is over 3' wide and stands about just as tall. There are probably 20 pods on the bush with about 8 open already. They are loaded with pollen and the bees just love them!
Now I just need to research a little and see if I can harvest poppy seeds from the pods when they dry out. I'll keep you posted!

So get out there and enjoy some flowers today...Mommy DID!