Poppies

The poppies which, in our absence in Canada, had seeded themselves and shot up at the end of the garden, are now past their best but have deepened the mystery of their origins by proving to be of three different types.

Most of them are this multi-petal type, which are mainly bright pink though some have a lilac tinge. Each plant has had a dozen or more blooms, so they've been quite spectacular.

Rather fewer are singles like this one, which seem to do best in attracting insects, from bees to hover flies to beetles, including....

....this bright green one which sports the most impressively developed rear thigh muscles. It's appropriately called a fat-legged flower beetle Oedemera nobilis of which only the male has these legs.

Then there are some which appear to be hybrids of the two above types and, finally....

....there are some uncommonly beautiful specimens of the common red poppy.

Gill has suggested that they may have come from the bird seed. Perhaps there is a secretive bird here which sows as well as eat.