I am so bummed. We have been hand-watering little sites in front of my school to support California poppy growth in this year of little water. We only have an hour a week on gardening, so we want results with that little time. The California Poppy, Eschscholzia californica, is our state flower, and it’s part of 4th grade California history. During spring break, a grounds maintenance person wiped them out like they were weeds. They were still blooming! We never made it to see the seed heads spring open, scattering seed everywhere. Argh!!!
California poppies, from the wikipedia commons files.
I guess we need to add a sign: “Rake Around Poppies,” “Let Us Live!”, “No Poppy Killers” — I could go on but I won’t! Or I move on to focusing on another area of school less likely to be messed with. This didn’t happen last year, and I will find out why. It’s so frustrating to hear from my principal about how he loves our attempts to beautify our campus, and then in one week of vacation it’s wiped out! Or I combat it with the biggest poppy seed planting ever in fall of 2015!
http://www.sfbotanicalgarden.org/garden/bloom_06_06.shtml gives you the details on the California history link.
Green schoolyard 