Poppies

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A couple of years ago I read an amazing book called The Triumph of Seeds:How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses, and Pips Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human History by Thor Hanson. He helped me to seed that the glory of a plant is not the beautiful flower that it produces, which fades in a short time and is gone. The real beauty and, in fact, the purpose of the plant is to produce seeds. 

 
About five years ago I bought some poppy seeds and planted some poppies. They are some of the first things to bloom in the garden. They just seed themselves and show up every year. The blooms are gorgeous.

  
However, the seed pods are also incredible.


 Eventually the pods dry out and become little pepper shakers full of poppy seeds. I picked one today and shook all the seeds out. Robert took photos of the seeds with his macro lens. Aren't they wonderful?

 
 
 




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