Late May Gardens #3

californiapoppy01, originally uploaded by Randuwa.

Back when I lived in Kentucky on the crest of a palisade at the edge of the prairie I planted California Poppies. I was enamored with their frilly unconventional foliage and brilliant yellow-orange blossoms. They loved the sun there and rewarded me by reseeding and returning annually to wave in clusters in the summer sun.

And therefore, it was an act of nostolgia that drove me to buy and plant a dozen of them in my moist, humid and shady backyard. Would they bloom? I had no way of knowing.... So, imagine my surprise this afternoon at the advent of this blossom: A peachy, variagated circle of creamy light against a bed of pale blue-green filigree. Will wonders never cease?