I ordered a packet of wild flowers seeds to put in a pollinator garden. After waiting weeks, I was delighted to see green stalks shoot up. Next came beautiful flowers. This image is a close-up of a poppy’s interior. Flaming-red silken petals provide a stage for the candy-striped stigma with black seeds.
Though poppy flowers are only about three inches in diameter, they are prolific. Garden Organic online states: “The average seed number per plant ranges from 10,000 to 60,000.”*
We also may be fragile beings with a limited time on earth, but we can be faithful where we are planted and multiply for a good harvest.
“… Seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” Matthew 13:23 NIV
For further study of this Bible verse:
https://www.blueletterbible.org/niv/mat/13/1/s_942001
Two gardening references about poppies:
*Biology of the poppy: https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/expert-advice/garden-management/weeds/weed-datasheets/common-poppy
Terrific developmental photographs:
