While I grow several varieties and colors of 'Poppies' the dazzling scarlet-orange one seen here is the only variety that makes a second appearance late in the season in my gardens. Known botanically as PAPAVER orientale this is the blossom made famous by New Mexico artist Georgia O'Keeffe's beautiful paintings from the 1930s.

Known also as 'Paper Poppy' here in the North-East, flowers appear to be fashioned of crepe paper; can be almost 6" across on stems to 3' in height and are one of the most brilliant perennials in my gardens. Easy to grow and completely imperturbable the gorgeous shot of color these huge crepe-petaled blooms give my gardens is, unfortunately, all too brief....blossoms last just one short week....once in early June and again in September.

Because their fantastically vivid color is gone in a blink PAPAVER is one of my favorite flowers to photograph after dark. Taken several weeks ago, I was interested in how the single blossom seen here was growing horizontally rather than vertically. The water droplets are simply due to the change in temperature from a warm Autumn day to a rather chilly Autumn evening and black background is just the natural 'night' in my gardens.