One mid-summer evening when I was leaving the allotment by the gate rather than by my usual route through the field hedge, I glimpsed, on the far edge of town, over rooftops, and between trees, an astonishing scarlet blaze where I’d never seen one before. Home was forgotten, and off I went to investigate: over the main road out of Wenlock and down a lane beside the old railway bridge, into a field with an abandoned barn by the gate, and there it was: an entire field of poppies.
They looked to have exploded from an oil seed rape crop, but it was hard to tell. Had someone sabotaged the farm seed, or did the farmer do it on purpose? Whatever the cause, it’s not happened since. But it was one of those weirdly wonderful happenings wherein it was hard not to grow very over-excited and run amok. I took lots of happy snaps, then dashed home to spread the news to he had a much smarter camera. And then we went back and repeated the excitement, all fuses fired by poppy power.
Tish Farrell 
What a wonderful ,pleasant surprise. I have not been successful at growing them.
Poppies like to do their own invitations, I’m thinking. I’ve never managed to grow any from seed either.
What a sight this must have been! Lucky you!
Did you not grow a Himalayan poppy one year from seed? I know they are fidgety and special. Or am I confusing things?
I’ve managed to grow herbaceous perennial oriental poppies from seed, but not the corn poppies. One year a whole flock of opium poppies arrived in the guerrilla garden, and odd ones still pop up, but all without my assistance 🙂
Fabulous. We have two poppy fields near here every summer. Fantastic stuff.
An enviable local facility, Margaret 🙂
I know!
how extraordinary – we have fields of blue and white near us, a sign of them being grown commercially but never seen a field of red. Presume the farmer had ploughed the field and not come back that year!
It’s a pity they didn’t repeat. I need to keep a better eye on the field.
amazing how we can miss what is immediately around us sometimes.
What a fabulous sight. A shame it was a one off.
They are lovely, aren’t they? Just starting to appear here.
That’s a lovely thought. Poppies already. Here the daffs are just thinking about buds. And it’s very very WET.
Lovely. 🙂 It happens around here every May but every year it’s a different field that is the most intense, so one never knows. I also don’t know how much of it is done on purpose, if any. In any case, hard to stop clicking. I like your photo with the tree the most.
Thanks, Manja. How lucky to have random field poppy production in your area. Most of our farm fields are poppy free, or at best only an odd scatter at the margins.
Absolutely glorious, Tish, and even more marvelous as a surprise!! I grew poppies when we were in Ohio and really missed them when we moved to Illinois.
I can well imagine that you missed them, Janet.
This is the kind of field that put the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion to sleep.
Ha!
Wow! Gorgeous. Wonder why it hasn’t happened again.
Alison
That’s a very good question, Alison.
Aren’t they glorious!!! 😀
Even in retrospect 🙂 🙂
How gorgeous! And what beautiful photos. 🙂
Thank you!
Gorgeous! Just what my winter weary eyes needed to see.
Nothing like a good dose of poppy red 🙂
Absolutely!