How long can you hang out watching bees roll around in poppies? Days and days over here! When the poppies are in bloom, the sound of the buzzing bees is at full volume. The bees just love the poppies! They pay no mind to anyone around watching. They are far too focused on collecting pollen!
Dahlias might have a bit of competition when it comes to poppies and pollen. While poppies absolutely pop with early and easy access pollen, dahlias take a little longer to produce. Poppy pollen is low hanging fruit for the bees in early summer, while dahlias don’t start providing lots of pollen until late summer into the early fall.
The cupped shape of the poppy flower makes it easy for the bees to collect the pollen. They crawl around on the stamens, knocking a lot of the pollen off to settle at the base of the petals where the bees can easily scoop it up.
Poppy flowers themselves do not make good cut flowers…but! The poppy seed heads are fabulous for textural interest in fresh of dried flower arrangements. You can have fresh poppy seed heads all summer long if you reseed them every couple weeks. Crowded poppies produce smaller seed heads, whereas poppies that have a bit of room to grow (say 8 inches between plants) will produce larger seed heads.
Remember! Poppies readily reseed! If you do not want them to reseed you must remove all the seed heads before they ripen and dry on the stem. They are however easy to plants to remove by weeding if you have them popping up in your garden in places you don’t want them. They don’t like to be transplanted.
Shop for poppy seeds: https://medeekmeadows.ca/dahlia-tubers-canada/frilly-pink-poppy-seeds/
Enjoy the Dahlia! … and the Frilly Pink Poppies!