LADYBUG SAYS ... PUMPKINS ND POPPIES SHOULD HAVE THEIR YEAR

This is the year for pumpkins and poppies.

Each year the National Garden Bureau of Downers Grove, IL, designates a vegetable and a flower for "The Year Of" and encourages all gardeners to try their two selections.

In their research, they found many culinary uses for pumpkins. The meat can be stir fried with other vegetables. Homemade pumpkin soup can be served in a pumpkin shell soup tureen. Pumpkins are not limited to orange. White pumpkins are being introduced and there may be a dark green or even black pumpkin variety in the future.

Pumpkins bring back childhood memories of crisp autumn days and moonlit Halloween nights. They are symbolic of a bountiful harvest and our ties with early settlers. Native to North America, the seeds of their ancestors have been found with artifacts in ancient burial ground.

The modern pumpkin little resembles the small bitter gourd-like vegetable of ancient history.

All pumpkins are annual plants that are characterized by runners, tendrils, prickly stems and bell-shaped, yellow plant. There are two plant habits among pumpkins. The vast majority are vining types in which the runners and vines will grow to a length of 15 feet. Semi-bush types have shorter vines but will still reach five feet.

Home gardeners may choose pumpkin varieties according to their use classification pie, jack-o-lantern, exhibition or decorative mini.

Pumpkins are an easy-to-grow vegetable suitable for all areas of North America. Sow seeds after all danger of frost is past and the soil has warmed. The seeds will not germinate in cold soil and tender young seedlings will be harmed by frost.

Most pumpkins are grown in hills, made by simply mounding up dirt a few inches high with a shallow depression in the center. Place six seeds in this depression to a depth of one inch and cover with fine soil. When seedlings reach about two inches in height, thin all but the three strongest plants. Mulching the plants with organic material will prove beneficial.

Each year W. Atlee Burpee Co. of Warminster, PA offers prizes for the largest pumpkins. Last year there were more than 1,000 entries. first prize went to Mike Pezzini and Tom Borchard of Salinas, CA for their mammoth 440-pound pumpkin.

The National Garden Bureau selected the California poppy as the Flower of the Year because it is easily grown from seed. They are drought resistant and seldom troubled by pests or disease.

Their silky cup-shaped flowers bloom prolifically atop airy foliage. Colors range from brilliant orange, yellow and gold to pink and crimson.

From myth to medicine the poppy family has a long and dramatic history. Archaeologist have found remains of poppy petals in Egyptian tombs dating back 3,000 years. Greeks considered this flower a symbol of fertility and placed them as offerings at temple shrines of goddesses. Certain poppies have been used since ancient times as a source of narcotic drugs.

After World War I millions of corn poppies bloomed in the meadows that had been battlefields of Flanders, Belgium. The corn poppy became immortalized as an emblem of those who died in war through Joyce Kilmer's poem "In Flanders Fields."

The foliage of the California poppy is a delicate blue-green appearing feathery because of its finely dissected leaves. Flowers may be single, semi-double or double, and are held above the foliage on stalks that are from 8 to 10 inches.

Like gazanias and morning glories, poppies have an internal clock that coordinates their blooming time with the rhythm of the sun. They will fold their petals closed at night and open them again each morning.

The California poppy is California's state flower. Aurantiaca Orange is the variety closest to the wildflower that is native to the state. Most wildflower collections contain this variety.

The simplest way to start California poppies is to scatter the seed directly where they are to bloom. The seed is rather fine and may be scratched shallowly into the soil, then covered with a layer of finely milled peat moss or soil. Tamp down gently and water. Adequate water is necessary for poppies to germinate. They develop quickly and will be poking through the soil in less than two weeks.

Pumpkins and California poppies should be garden features this year.