California Poppies

The poppies have arrived! Once planted, they continue to reseed themselves naturally until they cover whole hillsides. These are in our garden and are popping up everywhere. So far, we don't have the heart to pull out anything that is flourishing, so they are coming up in the middle of paths and out of rock walls. They grow between the rows of vines in many vineyards and along the roadsides. I particularly love the way they close up at night and follow the sun as they open in the morning.

I have heard that it is illegal to pick a California poppy (the state flower), but I can hardly imagine who would enforce that law or even how. I can't quite picture a policeman, park ranger, or even Smokey the Bear stepping out from behind a vine or a bush beside the highway to nab an unsuspecting picker of posies. They don't really lend themselves to being picked anyway, but fall over and drop their petals within hours….

It is often thought that the entrance to the San Francisco Bay is called the Golden Gate because of the iconic bridge which was painted International Orange as an undercoat, but left that color permanently. The name goes back further, however, when the first sight that greeted ships sailing into the bay were greeted by the poppy covered slopes of the East Bay Hills. That was before, as I have written before, Eucalyptus trees were planted on the hills by some lumber baron who discovered too late that eucalyptus wood is as hard as iron, extremely difficult to mill and totally unsuitable as timber. 

Where were the timber police when these unsuitable trees were planted? They quickly grew tall enough to block the sun needed by the poppies and in 1992 they provided 80% of the fuel for the East Bay firestorm which destroyed 3,000 homes and killed 24 people.