Shirly Poppies (Papaver rhoeas) are flowers that are as tenacious as they are delicate. They will start to grow in winter, even as there is snow or frost still on the ground. When the weather warms, the poppy plants begin to grow quickly and by late may they are covered with blooms: white with red tips, red with pink centers, pink with yellow centers… the combinations are many and all of them are beautiful. Their petals are soft as silk and more delicate than the finest gauzy tissue cottons. They withstand so much yet hate to be picked, wilting quickly.

This pattern allows the intrepid knitter to bring the beauty of the Shirley Poppy inside to stay. I have replicated in this pattern some of my favorite poppy color combinations as well as their buds and seed pods to that you might make a bouquet that is as wild and wonderful as the poppies in the garden.