Drying the poppies

Most of my notebooks have poppy petals in them. I press them, wait about a month for them to throughly dry then peel them from the pages of notepads and sketchbooks, and add the dried petals to my stash. Some of this batch went a little mouldy, but they look beautiful with it.

Today's Poppies

Poppy Project

Back to square one, scanning them in, like I used to. I have many petals now, but they are so very fragile, I don't know how they can become anything more than poppies.

Poppies

I have been collecting poppies for a couple of Summers now, They are so delicate - like the thinnest paper imaginable. My favorite flower by far. Wild flowers are incredible. It is a mission of mine to fine a field of poppies, and spend a few days pressing them, keeping them in a big book until they loose their moisture and then .... well, I don't know, I haven't got any further than imagining the joy of collecting them. I think it's maybe enough to just collect. A poppy museum? I have to sow some seeds after the winter, I want to find some sneaky patches to plant some, where no one will miss them if I pick them. Imagine if you could write on seeds and when the plant grew, it had your words in the petals. That reminds me of those strange 'grow your own boyfriend' things you have to soak in water.

Image courtesy of www.coventrybirder.co.uk

The BBC tells you how to grow poppies: "Oriental poppies are easy to grow and almost thrive on neglect." But I want plain old red ones, they are pretty enough.

So my question is: where can I find a field of poppies this Summer?