Papaver

Regretfully, along with many other growers throughout Europe, our stocks of oriental poppies have been severely affected by a strain of downy mildew, a fungal disease that has proved difficult to control. Therefore the majority of the P. orientale cultivars (now known as Oriental Group) will not be propagated in the near future. We have decided not to delete the images as they are a useful reference source.

Despite the fact that poppy flowers produce little in the way of nectar, they do produce abundant pollen (with the exception of some of the fully doubled forms) which is eaten for example by hoverflies and beetles, and supplied by honeybees to their larvae as a protein-rich food.