Romneya, Californian Tree Poppy

One of the more unusual members of the poppy family.

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Enormous papery white flowers with enlarged golden stamens in the middle of each flower.

Toothed grey foliage and grey stems to raise the flowers 4 foot or more above them.

Position this one carefully in a free draining soil and where it gets all afternoon sun as the plant will reject to being moved and it takes quite a long time to establish.

Once established the plants can become a very impressive clump.  I would not expect this for maybe five to 10 years as all the ones I have planted over the years, have taken a good three to five years to start giving an established impression.

Romneya coulteri is the main variety grown and sold in the UK.  This will quite easily become a six-foot clump if you give it time and remove competition form other plants directly around it.

For me, if I had space, I would position one or three in a triangle in that free draining ground in full sun and give it space to develop by only putting bedding plants around it.  This would allow each year for the Romneya to get bigger and better and less bedding could be used as the Romneya increases in size.

It is best to plant them in spring and if your garden is particularly cold in winter, then the backing of a wall or fence, ensuring that the plant would still get direct afternoon sun would be best.

Do not disturb the roots when you take it out of the pot from the nurseryman or garden centre.

Once established, a few years later, you can take root cuttings in the early part of spring and grow it from collected seed in the autumn. Sow the seed in the spring.

Enjoy this wonderful perennial.