asian poppies

[rober]

we have a large flower & flowering shrub garden. this time of year our asian poppies are blooming. standing near the hives if you turn full circle everywhere you look you can see large patches of dutch white clover blooming ( i've sowed 40 #'s of seed in the last 3 years over 1 1/2 acres ). there are a lot of other plants blooming. but the hottest items in my garden are the poppies. the bees are literally fighting over access to the flowers. there are as many as 8 bees per bloom. i'll sow more of them next year for sure. mid summer they'll be fighting over my datura ( moon flowers ) blooms.

[BlueBee]

Robber when you say Asian Poppies, are you referring to the poppy with botanical name of Papaver orientale?  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papaver_orientale  Big orange flowers, about 18" tall?  You grow them from seed?

I've got a few Papaver Orientale poppies here.  They typically bloom in June here, but it looks like it will be sometime in May this year.  I didn't really notice my bees working them in the past though.  I wonder if your bees are after pollen or nectar?  Is there even nectar in the poppies?

[rober]

i'm not sure what they are officially called. in 2001 i was renovating the cornice on the henry shaw house at the missouri botantical gardens in st louis. i got some seeds from a gardener there. i've seen them called peony poppies on e bay. some of the blooms can be multi-layered like a peony. there does not seem to set pattern to when they bloom like that. some of them are 5 feet tall now. if you have some interesting seeds to trade i'm game! i also have datura moonflowers that the girls are literally prying their way into in the evening before they open as the flowers emit a sweet odor only at night. i've seen gypsy moths on the moonflowers at night.
here are some photos:



moonflowers opening

[rober]

so bluebee, or anyone else, interested in trading some seeds??