Poppies: The Color of Spring

Spring is nearly here, coming this Saturday, March 20th.

Lots of people can attest to that by their allergies kicking-in with recent high pollen counts.

Beauty of Mother Nature shows best in spring: Green grass, yellow mustard, budding, flowering fruit and nut trees and, of course, our state flower the California poppy, can be seen throughout the Mother Lode .

According to California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Website, the California State Floral Society voted to select a state flower December 12, 1890. The California poppy — Eschscholzia californica — won by a landslide. The California poppy had been first described 70 years before, and it already had 64 years of horticultural history by then.

The flow even inspired a couple of songs, one of them supposedly sung by school children in Sacramento and the Bay Area during the 1940s.

Brilliant shades of orange still accent the landscape along highways, county roads and in rural areas. But the flower isn´t limit to just the Golden State.

California poppies have been grown successfully in many parts of the world, from cool temperate regions to lowland tropics. Residents can help spread the colorful state flower. In their native California and in other regions with mild winters, they should be planted in the fall. In areas with cold winters, they should be planted in the early spring, about the same time you would plant radishes.