The poppies are throwing one last hurrah before all their petals drift to the ground. Many of them have dropped their petals already and are now plump seed pops with amusing hats. At the end of summer, once their seed pods have dried, I’ll turn the seed pops upside down and shake out their tiny black seeds. I’m looking forward to delicious poppy seed breads and poppy seed filling for poppy seed rolls.

Poppy seed pops have an ingenious design. As they dry, little holes open just under their caps. When they are ready, all you have to do to get their seeds is to turn the seed pods upside down. All their seeds will flow out. It would be great if other plants did this.