Poppy Mallow: Flowers Gone Crazy

Poppy Mallow Spreading Aggressively

Poppy Mallow Close Up. Pretty, eh?

Some drought tolerant plants, like Firecracker Penstemon (penstemon eatonii), aren’t just drought tolerant, they are drought loving.  They do worse if watered too much.  Water is not their friend.  It can rot and kill them.

In the other category, drought tolerant plants like Poppy Mallow (callirhoe involucrata) are able to survive conditions of very little water.  However, given plenty of water, they are off to the races.  My experience suggests that when they are well-hydrated, they figure it is a good time to bloom and reproduce.  High Country Gardens describes Poppy Mallow as a “gentle spreader.”  After our unusual weather (lots and lots of rain) of the past few weeks, my gentle spreader seems to have become an aggressive spreader!  It is so beautiful right now that I guess I don’t mind.  However, I worry that it will soon begin to look yellow and crispyish (as it did mid summer last summer).  If the summer brings an end to the blossoms and a beginning  to yellow foliage spread everywhere, I won’t be feeling quite as pleased.  I’ll keep you posted.

Poppy Mallow spreading under the Russian Sage along my back fence

Poppy Mallow spreading under the Russian Sage along my back fence

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June 28, 2009 | Filed Under Gardening 

Comments

3 Responses to “Poppy Mallow: Flowers Gone Crazy”

  1. Mark M. on June 29th, 2009 9:44 pm

    Thanks for the recommendation. I like your fence a lot, too.
    Cheers,
    Mark M.

  2. Pmom on June 30th, 2009 7:46 pm

    The fence is growing on me. When we first moved in we had plans to pull it down right away and erect a shiny new vinyl one in its place. But then one of the landscapers we spoke to mentioned that he always thought it a better use of money to buy plants rather than fences. (Of course, he was selling plants, not fences.) I thought it was astonishing wisdom. It was only later that I realized that the living fence idea wouldn’t work for us (because our yard is so much lower than our neighbor’s, tall bushes would likely give our narrow back yard the feel of a dark prison rather than a garden paradise). So, the Russian Sage is the tallest thing out there so far, and I am realizing that a solid white vinyl fence might be as suffocating in the shadows it casts as the tall bushes. Pdad is unconvinced, however. I like the fence more and more, but at the end of the day if it doesn’t stay sturdy enough to keep our kids contained we will have to do something.

  3. Poppy Mallow: Dry and Crispy : Chocolate & Garlic on August 23rd, 2009 8:58 pm

    [...] remember the glory of my poppy mallow earlier this summer?  I promised to post if it got all dry and [...]

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