Pictured here is the bud of a PAPAVER orientale just beginning to open. The dazzling 'Oriental Poppy' is a scarlet-orange flower made famous by New Mexico artist Georgia O'Keeffe's beautiful paintings from the 1930s and are one of the most brilliant perennials in both my late spring and late summer gardens.

Also known as the 'Paper Poppy' here in the North-East flowers appear to be fashioned of crepe paper and can be almost 6" across on stems to 3' in height. Easy to grow and completely imperturbable the gorgeous shot of color these huge crepe-petaled blooms give my gardens is, unfortunately, all too brief....blossoms last just one short week....once in early June and again in September.

In the image seen here (taken after dark in my late summer gardens) I was concentrating on showing the very hairy green shell casing just splitting open as the orange blossom begins to make an appearance. Interestingly, as the blossom pushes it's way out and drops it's green casing the brown splotches on the petals completely disappear.....w/in two days of this photo it was a fully formed bright orange-red flower.