Eschscholzia californica Thai Silk Series
While I love the usual bright orange Eschscholzia, it is not a colour I want to predominate all over the garden; on the slope it is perfect.
Some very good American friends brought me some packets of seed of the Thai Silk series; I’m not sure why but I thought they might not be as strong a plant, or as easy to cultivate as the more customary wild orange variety.
From the RHS:
Preferred common name: California poppy Thai Silk Series
Family: Papaveraceae
Eschscholzia can be annuals or perennials, with finely divided leaves and solitary, long-stalked, poppy-like yellow, orange or red flowers, followed by conspicuous long seed-pods
Thai Silk Series are annuals with attractively dissected, blue-green foliage and single or more often semi-double flowers 4-6cm wide, in a range of shades of cream, yellow, orange, pink and red, sometimes with a cream centre.
Cultivation: Will thrive in poor, well-drained soil but they need full sun for the flowers to open. Can be grown as a drought-tolerant container plant. Good for exposed or coastal areas
They began flowering in the middle of April and made some nice combinations with tulips, especially in the Large Island.
Eschscholzia californica Thai Silk Series with tulips in the Large Island
Eschscholzia californica Thai Silk Series
Eschscholzia californica Thai Silk Series with tulips in the Large Island
I am removing the orange and yellow flowered plants from the Large Island and hoping that it will be all shades of pink, white, cream and pale yellow in the autumn.
Here’s a selection of some of the beautiful colours. I really like the pleated texture that some of them display.
Eschscholzia californica Thai Silk Series with tulips in the Large Island
Eschscholzia californica Thai Silk Series – how about this for pleated petals?
Eschscholzia californica Thai Silk Series
Eschscholzia californica Thai Silk Series
Eschscholzia californica Thai Silk Series with silver leaved Tanecetum
Eschscholzia californica Thai Silk Series
Eschscholzia californica Thai Silk Series
Eschscholzia californica Thai Silk Series
Eschscholzia californica Thai Silk Series
Eschscholzia californica Thai Silk Series, they come as doubles too
They are making seed pods now but are continuing to flower. I will cut them down when they have finished flowering but after they’ve spread their seed. Last year they flowered again as soon as the first rain of late summer arrived. At present they are filling so many spaces that it is hard to imagine the garden without them.
Creating my own garden of the Hesperides 
Your poppies are beautiful, love the pleated petals and so many different shades, really pretty. I sprinkled some seed of Eschscholzia Tropical Punch, which should be sunset colours, onto a bare patch of soil a few weeks ago, I will wait and see if they are as nice as yours!
I’ve not heard of that one, sounds like it could be lovely. They may not love your clay but I’m sure they’ll flower. Christina
These are gorgeous Christina – not only the colours, but the textures too. I had some California poppies in my first garden but they didn’t seem to like it in my rockery here. Did you sow the seed directly or in pots first?
Guardando le immagini del tuo giardino e l’uso che fai dei colori, mi piace sempre di meno il colore rosso che ho nel mio. Prima o poi sposterò in un’altra zona quelle rose rosse che hai visto anche tu. E comunque il rosso è un colore
veramente difficile, mi piacerebbe vedere degli accostamenti riusciti in alcuni giardini.
Anna Maria
Non mi sono dispiaciuto il rosso che tu hai, però è vero che hai molto spazio per crea una zona rosso altrove e metti i colore che preferisce vicino casa. Christina
Christina, these are beautiful in all colors.
Aren’t they just lovely, Susie? They should grow well for you too. Christina
These are lovely…must try. I’ve had pretty good luck with the common orange variety, so these should work as well, no?
They grow as easily as the common orange kind. Christina
Christina I love poppies and I had not seen these…they are especially gorgeous with those pleats in all the colors…they do look pretty mixed together in that island.
Beautiful!
Gorgeous colours…they have a beautiful “watercolour painting” look. And you have to love those pleats! 🙂
Ooh I wonder if I could get some of those. They are absolutely gorgeous. Despite my clay, I can grow the ordinary orange kind, and I had yellow and cream ones once, but I had no idea they came in those shades. Must do some research to see if they’re available here.
So beautiful, I wish I could grow even the plain orange ones. You must have the perfect climate for them.
Absolutely the right climate
Beautiful poppies in such a range of colours. The oranges and lemons 🙂 on your slope look stunning despite orange often being a difficult colour to place.
Maybe because the light is so much stronger, I find more intense colours are better than pale subtle ones. Christina
Really pretty!
Have a wonderful week!
Lea
Lea’s Menagerie
Hi Christina, I think this is a lovely variety, although I’m not fully convinced of mixing orange pinks and other colors together, the result is somehow ‘noisy’ but at the end smoothered by those drifts of silver artemisia (?). I love the butter yellow and white shades, they are really something!
Beautiful, they could work really well in my front garden, though I have had no luck at all this year sowing poppies direct, probably too dry at exactly the wrong time.
Could be, unless the seed wasn’t fresh? Christina
I haven’t come across these and I love them. Poppies of all kinds grow well up here, slightly oddly you might think on a hill in Wales, so I will give these a try. Like Alberto I really love the buttery yellow and the whites.
They are so easy, they like sun and free draining soil, and that’s it. Christina