A Pretty Pair of Poppies

It had been raining lightly for various periods before and during our visit to the Auckland Botanic Gardens, four days ago now and of the overcast skies, of course, provided an ideal softbox effect for the myriad flora that grow there. Especially striking for us were a few groups of tall, brilliant, and obviously flourishing poppies, which we at first thought were the California variety (Eschscholzia californica), but an identification sign corrected our understandable error; they were, in fact, Icelandic poppies (Papaver nudicaule). It was also quite breezy, which made it a challenge to catch the long-stemmed flowers in a moment of relative rest. The white one, fortunately was in the wind shadow of a nearby hedge, and the orange one had nestled into the maze of branches of an adjacent shrubby tororaro (Muehlenbeckia astonii), which is called MingiMingi by the indigenous Māori; the word translates as “twisted.” This is a plant that we would like to grow in our own garden. It’s a hardy endemic shrub that grows naturally in coastal areas of New Zealand, around Wellington (at the southern end of the North Island) and in the eastern part of the northern half of the South Island. It grows up to 2½ meters tall and lends itself very nicely to topiary trimming. (As usual, click on a photo if you’d like to see it in higher resolution.)