In SOUTH PASADENA, I worked with home owners to fit poppies into their landscaping scheme. Growing conditions involved sprinklers, professional gardeners, dense soil, and tree cover.

Battling dense soil, tree cover and sprinklers.

After an encounter with a lawn mower. Though it was not difficult to get permission from homeowners, not all homeowners communicate regularly with their gardeners.

This family lived in California for four generations. The poppies were watered by a professional gardener.

These residents kindly allowed poppies to bloom under the rose bushes.

South Pasadena Nature Park.

Poppies on this traffic island survived into 2009 and have been blooming almost continuously from March to July.