Following the Fragrant Path

A man I deeply admire is Ed Rasmussen. His new catalog just came out last month. His address is P.O. Box 328, Fort Calhoun, Nebraska 68023. Reading the descriptions of seeds in his catalog is a literary pleasure, and a dreamy thing to do when there's thunder outside. His outfit is named The Fragrant Path.

Those poppies that I watched last summer and fall, the ones with the lovely blue-green foliage, so handsome they don't need a flower? they're on Page 64, in the Perennial, Other Flowers of Merit section. Glaucium flavum Horned Poppy. "Bold handsome plants that perform as annuals, biennials or short-lived perennials, depending perhaps on how conditions suit them....Poor soil and full sun suit them and if they don't live over winter, they will reseed themselves. The seed pods can be a foot long."

He seems to hand-select all the amazing number of seeds that are on offer, and the rate of bloom from the packets is amazing. The Fragrant Annuals section has that pretty Sweet Wormwood on page 14 -- Artemisia annua -- which used to be a medicine for malaria. Lovely plant. I'm hoping it seeded itself for this year!