개양귀비

"To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world . . .", said the fox.

"I am beginning to understand," said the little prince. "There is a flower . . . I think that she has tamed me . . ."

I was always reminded of this conversation between the fox and the little prince whenever I saw a field of flowers. Thousands and millions of them but they all look the same to me. In the end, I only saw a sea of colours and not a single flower.

The month of June is the blooming season of Shirley Poppy (개양귀비), also known as 'Yang Gui Fei' in Korea. You heard it right, "Yang Gui Fei' (楊貴妃) is also the name of one of the four great beauties of the ancient China. With a name related to an ancient beauty, you can imagine how much more beautiful it would be to be standing in a field surrounded by thousands and millions of scarlet Shirley Poppy. 

"There is a flower . . . I think that she has tamed me . . ."

A sea of scarlet Shirley Poppy in England

One place in Korea where you can enjoy the spectacle is "View Botanic Garden" (포천뷰식물, www.viewgarden.co.kr), located in Pocheon, Gyeonggi-do. It has a 7,000 'pyeong' (1 'pyeong' = 3.3m2) field filled with waving poppies every year in the month of June. Besides Shirley Poppy, you also get to see other species like Iceland Poppy, Tulip Poppy and Calfornia Poppy. These poppies are 'safe' in the sense they are not the poppy species which are known to produce opiates. The botanic garden held its first "Red Poppy Festival", the largest of its kind, in June 2006. During this annual festival, visitors can expect to taste food made and cooked with poppy petals. I wish I am in Korea in June so that I can tell you how they taste like.