The French Flounce

The French Flounce is a poppy with a double mix of flowers that resemble the peony and carnation poppy with a range of colors of pinks, salmon, violet, scarlet, deep reds and purple. This poppy is a part of the Papaver paeoniflorum and lacinatum family in the Papaveraceae genus. This species of poppies is one of the most elegant with its mixture of blooms that have the appearance of peonies and carnations in the deep and elegant colors. The blooms are long lasting and when faded the pod will drop its seeds to reseed this traditional member of the Papaver family.

This poppy is a traditional poppy, which is frost hearty and grows between three and four feet tall making it perfect for the elegant back row in a garden or for a glorious middle row in an island garden. This is a poppy that will grow in almost any climate and planting seeds in the fall will allow them to germinate when the ground thaws in early spring. Since this is a poppy is able to handle frost it will bloom best when germinated in cool weather.

When planting the seeds of the French Flounce, they should be sprinkled as thinly as possible and should be planted in location with full sun. The rows of these poppies should be 8 to 10 inches apart and once in the ground require little care and do not require fertilizer. They are a hearty flower that can do without water, but flowers better with adequate water.