Shelburne Falls is a tiny town in the hills of western Massachussetts. I don't live there but I was determined to attend a forum they were hosting that was addressing the impending home heating crisis. So I made a trek (138 mi. EW) to Shelburne Falls, and yes, it cost a bit of cash and a bit of gas. It was worth the $$$ and the time.
As we know “Winter is icumen in, Lhude sing Goddamm.” Though many of us seem to have forgotten that shivering time is just over the horizon I wanted to see what might come out of this very local effort to deal with a very global, or at least regional, problem. Surprisingly, more than a hundred folks were gathered in the main meeting room of the Shelburne Senior Center. Most of them were over 50 and some topped out in the late 80’s, and quite a few were still in their 40's and even a couple in their 30's. It was a diverse group of citizens, activists and advocates who had come together to discuss the impending fuel crisis that will inevitably accompany the winter months. While there may or may not be shortages of heating oil this year, the cost of fuel of all types (except wood, at least in the Pioneer Valley) has gone up sharply. Many senior citizens, as well as others with limited $$$ resources, low-income families and individuals, will be unable to afford to keep their houses at a reasonable temperature. Particularly hard hit will be those who heat with oil. Moreover, any financial assistance from the usual agencies and local charity sources will not only be down from year’s past, since there is just less money in the pool, the money that is there won’t go nearly as far. Consequently, not only will fewer families get assistance, but the assistance they do get will be very limited.
Here are my initial and somewhat limited observations. The forum was neatly, competently, and compassionately facilitated by the director of the Shelburne Senior Center. Throughout the entire time he was aware of the scope of the collective issue of energy descent and its impact on the entire system. Though he often made references to the fact that everyone was facing a difficult and thoroughly formidable constellation of events, he continued to make every effort to keep the conversation focused on the immediate future and what things could be done to make residences more buttoned up against the cold.
To that end, there was talk about the possibility of some folks heating with wood and wood pellets since there is certainly no shortage of that fuel in western Mass. The problems with it, however, range from the limited availability of proper stoves and the inhibiting effects of new state legislation that mandates certification for all woodstove installers. Since none of the proper mechanisms are in place yet, one expert asserted that there would be virtually no new wood stove installations until sometime in February at the earliest. Someone else pointed out that one of the local agencies had several new wood stoves for sale at reduced cost, so I suspect there will be at least a few installations despite the new regulations. There followed the inevitable caveats about the risks of fire from wood stoves, etc. A list of reliable or know contractors was circulated.
Another idea that was floated about and demands serious consideration is the creation of centralized neighborhood heating facilities. Under this model a small, highly efficient heating center would be built to serve several, six to a dozen houses within a specified radius. Each household would pay a rate equal to their portion of what they actually used. The concept really doesn't differ much from what happens in a large building that is heated by a central source. Heating centers is not only more efficient and less polluting than having individual, in-home furnaces, it would certainly be less expensive.
Overall this was an impressive and worthwhile gathering. Though there were many other points made, ideas floated and suggestions proffered at the gathering, these are the ones that stuck out for me: [1] do whatever you can to make your house more weather and energy tight; [2] local agencies or groups need to prepare a list of shelters, their locations and contact people for transportation in case of emergencies; [3] folks need to go out of their way to be aware and alert about their neighbor’s living situations, particularly in the case of the elderly and single parent families; and [4] we may need to consider the possibility of collective living arrangements at least on a temporary basis in some situations. One person at the meeting told how she and her husband have opened their home to additional residents since their children have moved on in their lives.
The strongest idea/feeling that emerged from the forum, in my opinion, was a consensus that we need to become more neighborly. Having grown up in a small town I am very aware that this benign-sounding behavior, or way of acting, can be a double-edged sword. In the wrong hands and wielded without consideration, it can be more devastating than helpful. Being neighborly requires being not only vigilant, or even snoopy sometimes, it also requires tolerance, discretion and respect.
Though race, ethnicity, sexual and religious affiliation still play a powerful role in shaping how we congregate, where and how we live, is generally driven by other forces. I am thinking more of the suburban explosion rather than what may have been happening in cities. One of the ways in which life has changed in the past four or five decades, is that we have become more insular and more ghetto-ized, mostly by economic or social status. For most of us, the $$$$$ value of our property and those that surround it have been more important in the way we make our decisions and the way we live, than the human or community values around us. And though it is clichéd to point it out yet again, there is no doubt that automobiles and computer-oriented, even computer-dominated, lifestyles have done much to erode interaction with the “folks that live next door.” I am NOT trying to make the case that there is no sense of neighborly camaraderie, but it has greatly diminished in recent years, particularly in the suburbs. I believe that the re-incorporation of genuine neighborliness into our lives is one of the most compelling challenges of the coming decades
Looking out for the well-being of others outside of your family or your own church group or whatever “us” group you belong to, is going to be an increasingly vital quality and measure of a decent, livable and sustainable society. It seemed to me that the folks in Shelburne Falls were beginning to take the first tentative, but determined steps toward what Rob Hopkins, a leading cultural thinker in Britain, calls the “Transition Culture”. (see http://transitionculture.org) I also admire their courage. There's going to be hard slogging ahead for all us. The Pioneer Valley once again may live up to its name. I wish them and all of us well.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
The “just in time” mentality of the USofA may be too late.
This dodgy concept has always seemed like a contemporary riff on the notion that popped up in those old Greek tragedies: dues ex machina. Though some have argued that the “just in time” concept originated with Henry Ford (see wikipedia entry on this), the process really took hold in the USofA in the 1980s when the Japanese style of management and other notions of process and profit migrated here, to great corporate enthusiasm, from the orient. It appealed to the corporations greatly because it seemed to be a way to rapidly ratchet up profits. Corporate mentality determined that keeping an inventory of anything on hand was costly and in their view “inefficient”. It is, according to corporate mission numero uno, always easier and cheaper, both in terms of people (salaries=expenses=lower profits) and products (stuff=storage facilities=maintenance=people (see above)=costs or expenses=lower profits) to let someone else handle the storage and just truck the stuff at the last minute. All of this was able to happen because it was soooo cheap because oil/gasoline was soooo cheap.
“Just in time” affected and infected every phase of our lives since nearly everything we consume or do in the country is subject to the rules of corporate game playing. So we all got used to living not just from pay check to pay check but according the delivery schedules (“just in time”) of whatever it was we might need. People began motoring to the malls and supermarkets almost every day, not only to fill their empty lives with something to do, but because the became accustomed to living on a corporate schedule. True, there are some folks who stuff a week’s worth of shopping into one trip, but for many there is no option other than a daily trip to the urban equivalent of the watering hole: the supermarket. But the time's, they are a changing.
It is now estimated by many observers of these things, that at any point in time most supermarkets have no more than three or four days of supply of food available to put out on their shelves and racks. BTW: how much food do you keep at home, just in case? This question isn’t actually intended to ramp up fears, though it probably does that, it is meant to raise the issue of prudent planning. And what is true of food is true for almost everything else of any real value or need. The only things that seem to be exempt from this are crappy plastic products of all kinds, electronic gismos, and automobiles (particularly SUVs) which seem to be in almost obscene abundance everywhere. Have you ever had to wait for big-screen plasma TV? And there are certainly no waiting lines for Hummers anymore. Can't eat a Hummer, but you might be able to live in one. You might have to.
Besides the worrisome potential shortfalls of food, there is certainly a reason to be concerned about the availability of oil and gasoline, the principal lubricants of absolutely everything we have come to rely on. Continued escalation of the costs we seem to grimace and bear, but any interruption, disruption or actual shortages will send this country into a panic that will make the lines at gas stations in the 70s seem like a sedate tea and crumpets affair.
Personally, one of my biggest worries concerns heating oil. What are the supplies of heating oil for the winter and how much will the stuff cost? My gut tells me to worry about these things, maybe because no one who is directly connected to these issues really seems to be paying any attention to them; at least they aren’t paying any attention to them publicly. I may have missed some stories about this in the media, but I am, for better or worse, an addicted watcher of morning news, or at least ten minutes or so of the stuff.
There is intelligent life out somewhere however. And this time it is to be found in Shelburne, a small town in the middle of Massachusetts. There is going to be an open meeting at the Shelburne Senior Center on July 30th (a Wednesday) at 1:30 PM to discuss the looming crisis in home heating that will fall most heavily on the elderly this winter. The forum will address not only the immediate needs of people, but hopes to consider the entire scope of the problem which includes not only heating oil and its costs, but issues of food security, transportation and community relationships. Anyone within striking distance of this singular event should strongly consider attending. Let's hope it draws a real crowd. Though I will have to expend valuable gasoline to attend from so far away, I fully intend to make the trek to Shelburne to watch, listen and learn. Hopefully, there will be more forums like this around our state as people become more aware that now is the time to come together, to “re-localize” and uncouple ourselves as much as we can from corporate thinking and try to solve our own problems on our own initiatives. Such efforts may be “just in time”.
“Just in time” affected and infected every phase of our lives since nearly everything we consume or do in the country is subject to the rules of corporate game playing. So we all got used to living not just from pay check to pay check but according the delivery schedules (“just in time”) of whatever it was we might need. People began motoring to the malls and supermarkets almost every day, not only to fill their empty lives with something to do, but because the became accustomed to living on a corporate schedule. True, there are some folks who stuff a week’s worth of shopping into one trip, but for many there is no option other than a daily trip to the urban equivalent of the watering hole: the supermarket. But the time's, they are a changing.
It is now estimated by many observers of these things, that at any point in time most supermarkets have no more than three or four days of supply of food available to put out on their shelves and racks. BTW: how much food do you keep at home, just in case? This question isn’t actually intended to ramp up fears, though it probably does that, it is meant to raise the issue of prudent planning. And what is true of food is true for almost everything else of any real value or need. The only things that seem to be exempt from this are crappy plastic products of all kinds, electronic gismos, and automobiles (particularly SUVs) which seem to be in almost obscene abundance everywhere. Have you ever had to wait for big-screen plasma TV? And there are certainly no waiting lines for Hummers anymore. Can't eat a Hummer, but you might be able to live in one. You might have to.
Besides the worrisome potential shortfalls of food, there is certainly a reason to be concerned about the availability of oil and gasoline, the principal lubricants of absolutely everything we have come to rely on. Continued escalation of the costs we seem to grimace and bear, but any interruption, disruption or actual shortages will send this country into a panic that will make the lines at gas stations in the 70s seem like a sedate tea and crumpets affair.
Personally, one of my biggest worries concerns heating oil. What are the supplies of heating oil for the winter and how much will the stuff cost? My gut tells me to worry about these things, maybe because no one who is directly connected to these issues really seems to be paying any attention to them; at least they aren’t paying any attention to them publicly. I may have missed some stories about this in the media, but I am, for better or worse, an addicted watcher of morning news, or at least ten minutes or so of the stuff.
There is intelligent life out somewhere however. And this time it is to be found in Shelburne, a small town in the middle of Massachusetts. There is going to be an open meeting at the Shelburne Senior Center on July 30th (a Wednesday) at 1:30 PM to discuss the looming crisis in home heating that will fall most heavily on the elderly this winter. The forum will address not only the immediate needs of people, but hopes to consider the entire scope of the problem which includes not only heating oil and its costs, but issues of food security, transportation and community relationships. Anyone within striking distance of this singular event should strongly consider attending. Let's hope it draws a real crowd. Though I will have to expend valuable gasoline to attend from so far away, I fully intend to make the trek to Shelburne to watch, listen and learn. Hopefully, there will be more forums like this around our state as people become more aware that now is the time to come together, to “re-localize” and uncouple ourselves as much as we can from corporate thinking and try to solve our own problems on our own initiatives. Such efforts may be “just in time”.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Bastille Day
A bon jour to whomever is out there. The weather geniis promised rains today, but except for a very brief torrential burst early in the day, it has just been muggy and sans precipitation, just some sun and some clouds. Un jour chien d'ete if ever there was one.
Interestingly enough A Tale of Two Cities, with the truly compelling Ronald Coleman (I mean that), playing Sidney Carton, just aired on the Turner channel, the one that plays “classic” films. It is to be followed by that pastiche, Scaramouche, “starring” Stewart Granger. His bland face, yet craggy jaw and toothy sNile work OK in what is essentially a two dimensional role. Janet Leigh is compelling as his lady love … compellingly awful. Oh well, it is probably better than a Friday night with George and Laura.
If we were going to try the Dickens route today we would have to make a film called a Tale of Two Worlds. The world as it is and the world as re-cast and envisioned by GWB and Co. And I do mean “company”. The world as viewed by corporations, whether they are American or some other concoction, does not resemble the world as envisioned by me, as well as several billion others. I am fortunate, I suppose, since I live relatively high on the hog, thanks to the assault on nearly everything provided courtesy of the corporate way of being in the world. Though I don’t live anywhere near the pinnacle of the hog compared to say, the CEO of General Mills or the cretinous creature that heads up Wal-mart. (He actually believes his own bullshit! And he has been truly frighteningly effective in persuading millions of others that his view is righteous.) Most of the world's billions live on roughly one 20th or less than I do. Make no mistake about it, the USofA is leading the not-so-free world into a slough of despair and degradation at a rate that is quite mind-boggling. Though if you give it too much thought you must come away with the knowledge that all of the so-called "American Way of Life" is a bright and shiny object built in the last three or four decades. Our habits have brought us to the point of probably-ain't-no-way outta-this-swamp. Let's face it: There is no god that will save us from our own deliberate ignorance and folly. Anyway. There are a lot of folks who would say that I shouldn’t complain, but I fully intend to until my last breath.
The whole gestalt… Bastille Day, Tale of Two Cities, the cover of the New Yorker, the cynical campaign of John McCain and the free ride the press continues to give this near-the-bottom-of-his-class-at-Annapolis candidate (recollections of C-student GWB?), the fires in California, not to mention global warming and the fact that I haven’t gotten laid in god doesn’t even remember how long …. reminds me that our nation was founded in blood and privation, by more than just the handful of gentleman farmers and businessmen who wrote the rules of the road. There were also a whole lot of farmers with guns. Give you any ideas? But, the rules of the road that they wrote didn’t envision what we have today; a government run by self-serving, spineless, ignorant politicians whose strings are pulled by kleptomanical, greedy, amoral corporations set on controlling everything that is under the ground and the oceans as well everything that flows across and over the ground. When corporations were given the legal equivalency of super-human status, we all got fucked. They name the game, they write the rules, they dole out the goodies and the punishments. Kontrol, it’s kalled kontrol…… O well… spread 'em and bend over.
There will be no revolution in this kountry of korn for fuel…. We’ve all bought the spectacle, ingested it without a second thought and now it's like a narcotic coursing through our system. Want to know what I'm talking about? Try slogging through a sort of Dr. Doom explains the meaning of life piece entitled The Society of the Spectacle, by Guy Debord, written in 1967. O yes BTW, he’s French. (You can find it at www.bopsecrets.org) And that provides me with a neat segue back to Bastille Day.
Just as Dickens's Madame Defarge knitted whatever it was she knitted, I am keeping my mind atuned as I contemplate the guillotine. I am performing an equally mundane and actually useful task; I am entering the names and characteristics of a few hundred plants into a list. It is a list of all of the plants that are planted in the gardens of one of the wealthiest women in the world, or in the USofA at least. What is the source of her wealth: Texas oil; what else? I am rather enjoying this task as I have enjoyed working in her gardens. This list will be used as the basis for a maintenance program and schedule to keep her place looking tip top. When I finish up for the day I am going to celebrate Bastille Day in Boston at the Gaslight Café. You just never know where or what will turn up when you turn out. As Derrick Jensen reminds us, it is possible to hold two thoughts in our head simultaneously: "we're all fucked, and life is good!"
Interestingly enough A Tale of Two Cities, with the truly compelling Ronald Coleman (I mean that), playing Sidney Carton, just aired on the Turner channel, the one that plays “classic” films. It is to be followed by that pastiche, Scaramouche, “starring” Stewart Granger. His bland face, yet craggy jaw and toothy sNile work OK in what is essentially a two dimensional role. Janet Leigh is compelling as his lady love … compellingly awful. Oh well, it is probably better than a Friday night with George and Laura.
If we were going to try the Dickens route today we would have to make a film called a Tale of Two Worlds. The world as it is and the world as re-cast and envisioned by GWB and Co. And I do mean “company”. The world as viewed by corporations, whether they are American or some other concoction, does not resemble the world as envisioned by me, as well as several billion others. I am fortunate, I suppose, since I live relatively high on the hog, thanks to the assault on nearly everything provided courtesy of the corporate way of being in the world. Though I don’t live anywhere near the pinnacle of the hog compared to say, the CEO of General Mills or the cretinous creature that heads up Wal-mart. (He actually believes his own bullshit! And he has been truly frighteningly effective in persuading millions of others that his view is righteous.) Most of the world's billions live on roughly one 20th or less than I do. Make no mistake about it, the USofA is leading the not-so-free world into a slough of despair and degradation at a rate that is quite mind-boggling. Though if you give it too much thought you must come away with the knowledge that all of the so-called "American Way of Life" is a bright and shiny object built in the last three or four decades. Our habits have brought us to the point of probably-ain't-no-way outta-this-swamp. Let's face it: There is no god that will save us from our own deliberate ignorance and folly. Anyway. There are a lot of folks who would say that I shouldn’t complain, but I fully intend to until my last breath.
The whole gestalt… Bastille Day, Tale of Two Cities, the cover of the New Yorker, the cynical campaign of John McCain and the free ride the press continues to give this near-the-bottom-of-his-class-at-Annapolis candidate (recollections of C-student GWB?), the fires in California, not to mention global warming and the fact that I haven’t gotten laid in god doesn’t even remember how long …. reminds me that our nation was founded in blood and privation, by more than just the handful of gentleman farmers and businessmen who wrote the rules of the road. There were also a whole lot of farmers with guns. Give you any ideas? But, the rules of the road that they wrote didn’t envision what we have today; a government run by self-serving, spineless, ignorant politicians whose strings are pulled by kleptomanical, greedy, amoral corporations set on controlling everything that is under the ground and the oceans as well everything that flows across and over the ground. When corporations were given the legal equivalency of super-human status, we all got fucked. They name the game, they write the rules, they dole out the goodies and the punishments. Kontrol, it’s kalled kontrol…… O well… spread 'em and bend over.
There will be no revolution in this kountry of korn for fuel…. We’ve all bought the spectacle, ingested it without a second thought and now it's like a narcotic coursing through our system. Want to know what I'm talking about? Try slogging through a sort of Dr. Doom explains the meaning of life piece entitled The Society of the Spectacle, by Guy Debord, written in 1967. O yes BTW, he’s French. (You can find it at www.bopsecrets.org) And that provides me with a neat segue back to Bastille Day.
Just as Dickens's Madame Defarge knitted whatever it was she knitted, I am keeping my mind atuned as I contemplate the guillotine. I am performing an equally mundane and actually useful task; I am entering the names and characteristics of a few hundred plants into a list. It is a list of all of the plants that are planted in the gardens of one of the wealthiest women in the world, or in the USofA at least. What is the source of her wealth: Texas oil; what else? I am rather enjoying this task as I have enjoyed working in her gardens. This list will be used as the basis for a maintenance program and schedule to keep her place looking tip top. When I finish up for the day I am going to celebrate Bastille Day in Boston at the Gaslight Café. You just never know where or what will turn up when you turn out. As Derrick Jensen reminds us, it is possible to hold two thoughts in our head simultaneously: "we're all fucked, and life is good!"
Monday, July 7, 2008
Plume poppies and Permaculture --- nic
I suppose it’s rather head in the sandish of me to bother penning a piece about Plume poppies ---- it will follow this bit of rant or reflection depending on how it all turns out ---- but it is just one of those “gotta do it” impulses that grip me now and then.
I attended two days of the three-day “Northeastern Permaculture Summer Convergence” this weekend. It was held on the property managed by Nuestras Raices,“ (http://www.nuestras-raices.org/en/home) a grass-roots organization that promotes economic, human and community development in Holyoke, Massachusetts through projects relating to food, agriculture and the environment”. The property is a 20 plus acre “farm” that offers plots for gardening, both home and small commercial, as well as fields on which to raise domestic animals such as pigs, goats, chickens and sheep. They also have a petting zoo, a horse barn, a restaurant and space for celebrations of all kinds.
The group, as you might have gathered from their name, grew out of the efforts of the Latin American community in Holyoke, especially immigrants from Puerto Rico. I had hoped and expected that there would be some participation and at least one presentation by Nuestras Raices during the “convergence”, but except for a tour of the facilities hosted by an extraordinary young Puerto Rican man, they had no presence at the actual sessions or working groups. As we went about the tour, I had the distinct feeling that those folks who were there on the place to tend their animals and gardens regarded us curious, and somewhat unwelcome interlopers. I wondered if anyone had actually reached out to them. I felt very uncomfortable about their lack of participation and don’t really know if it was an oversight on the part of the permaculture folks or the unwillingness of NR to join in. In either case, something should have been done to include them; it would have made for a richer and more satisfying experience.
I am still sorting out my feelings and thoughts about the both the content and the aura or gestalt of the weekend. Until I have actually had time and taken the effort to articulate them as clearly as I can, I won’t share them. The only impression I will pass on for now is related to what I observed above. The demographics were definitely on the white side, except for one Asian woman, and one woman from Ecuador, though there might have been a couple of other folks who weren’t white and I just didn’t notice them. Most of the participants were youngish --- I would guess that people in their 20s and 30s were the largest age groups. I couldn’t help but have a sort of flash-back to the 70s moment or several. More on all of this later.
I attended two days of the three-day “Northeastern Permaculture Summer Convergence” this weekend. It was held on the property managed by Nuestras Raices,“ (http://www.nuestras-raices.org/en/home) a grass-roots organization that promotes economic, human and community development in Holyoke, Massachusetts through projects relating to food, agriculture and the environment”. The property is a 20 plus acre “farm” that offers plots for gardening, both home and small commercial, as well as fields on which to raise domestic animals such as pigs, goats, chickens and sheep. They also have a petting zoo, a horse barn, a restaurant and space for celebrations of all kinds.
The group, as you might have gathered from their name, grew out of the efforts of the Latin American community in Holyoke, especially immigrants from Puerto Rico. I had hoped and expected that there would be some participation and at least one presentation by Nuestras Raices during the “convergence”, but except for a tour of the facilities hosted by an extraordinary young Puerto Rican man, they had no presence at the actual sessions or working groups. As we went about the tour, I had the distinct feeling that those folks who were there on the place to tend their animals and gardens regarded us curious, and somewhat unwelcome interlopers. I wondered if anyone had actually reached out to them. I felt very uncomfortable about their lack of participation and don’t really know if it was an oversight on the part of the permaculture folks or the unwillingness of NR to join in. In either case, something should have been done to include them; it would have made for a richer and more satisfying experience.
I am still sorting out my feelings and thoughts about the both the content and the aura or gestalt of the weekend. Until I have actually had time and taken the effort to articulate them as clearly as I can, I won’t share them. The only impression I will pass on for now is related to what I observed above. The demographics were definitely on the white side, except for one Asian woman, and one woman from Ecuador, though there might have been a couple of other folks who weren’t white and I just didn’t notice them. Most of the participants were youngish --- I would guess that people in their 20s and 30s were the largest age groups. I couldn’t help but have a sort of flash-back to the 70s moment or several. More on all of this later.
A dozen years ago I began an affaire de florale that has continued ever since, though not without a few second thoughts. I recall my love-at-first sight of her as though it was yesterday. She was stunning, standing there so erect and proud, a lithe willowy dancer backlit by the late afternoon sun. With her tousled blond top aglow and flowing in the gentle breeze, her beauty was exquisite. She put me in mind of an egret lifting her head to the sky or Princess Grace in a svelte gown turning oh so slightly to look my way. I was in love, shot through with passion. I had succumbed to the seductive charms of the Plume Poppy, though at the time I didn’t know her name or her proclivities. Little did I know what was to befall me.
If you are thinking about having a Plume Poppy in your garden, try googling it first. When you do you may have an experience not unlike having an actual plume poppy in your garden. Initially I got 84,000 hits in 0.17 seconds. I checked out a couple of the references and then glanced at the counter again. Now there were more than 300,000 hits. That’s akin to the habits of the plant itself: if you turn your back on it even for a second or two there will be at least three or four more of them. You can almost hear them saying: “He won’t notice, and besides, we’re sooo lovely.” More on this later; for now, just think dandelions or bamboo, or both.
You’ll discover that the Plume poppy, or Macleaya cordata, is an Asian immigrant. It’ s also known as Tree Celandine. Why I’m not sure. I’m also not sure if anyone knows exactly how it got here, but it isn’t difficult to figure out why, some smitten smuggler was taken in by its singular appearance, its truly outrageous gorgeousness. It is one of those plants that can’t be mistaken for anything else and it certainly isn’t inconspicuous. It is definitely not a shrinking violet.
Plume Poppies are statuesque and regal. They are also vigorous and rapid-growing. After a soaking Spring rain and a couple of days of warm weather, grab a lawn chair, a G&T, then just sit and watch; they will practically extend before your eyes. The leaves are a soft green color, and, technically, lobate in appearance.
Yet as you look at them, with their silvery, furry undersides the leaves seem more like hands lifting to face the sun. The petioles, or leaf stems, are silky, v-shaped and pale pink with small rounded teeth on their edges. The strong vertical stems of the Plume Poppy give it a stalwart architectural character. Smooth in texture, and steely in color, they too are shot through with a faint blush of pink. 
Throughout the season the Plume Poppies will grow taller and taller, often reaching heights of nearly ten feet under ‘ideal’ conditions, though they usually average about six or seven feet. As if this was not enough, add to the foliage and structure a wonderfully decorative tassel of white-turning-to-blush flowers. As the season nears its end, delicate pea pod-shaped seed envelopes replace the flowers and as they dry, they will whisper and chatter in the fall breezes. All in all the Plume Poppy is truly among the most stately perennials. But this glorious beauty comes at some cost. Not in dollars, but in time, energy and frustration. Think dandelions or bamboo, or both.
That first year of my affair I finally cut down my rangy Plume Poppy in early October; it was eight feet tall. I had let it run its course from sprout to seed. The first thing I noticed was that is was more than an inch in diameter and nearly as tough as bamboo. The next season, my first plume poppy had been joined by at least two dozen cousins, or other relatives. Being lazy and other wise occupied, I let them go. By the third season I had a plume poppy patch of at least a hundred plants; they had taken over a space nearly 20 by 20 and seemed to be sending out missionaries to colonize every other planting bed on the property. Do you recall the admonition to “be fruitful and multiply”.
Each April I admire the beauty of the Plume Poppies as they practically scramble to raise themselves out of the ground. Their pale green shoots are unmistakable. And everywhere there is a shoot there is a root, or roots. Some are as thick as a hose. The roots fan out generally only in one direction but they can be as long as the plant is tall. At several points along these root, new stems will arise. Each of these is capable of pushing out another root in yet another direction. As the plants age, the stems thicken just below the surface and become woody. Of course some of the new plants have arisen from seeds as well. In any case, I dig up as many as I can find, but they are everywhere; and the roots break easily.
Whatever you do, don’t try to diminish the quantity of Plume Poppies by merely pulling them out as though they are ordinary “weeds”. What makes eradicating or even controlling the plume poppy difficult, is that even a small section of root, if chopped or broken off and left in the soil, will invariably send up a new stem. So you must get out the entire root. In this regard, the plant is similar to Japanese Knotweed. Even the smallest fragment is capable of creating a whole new plant. Remember the broom in the Sorcerer’s Apprentice? I have managed to keep the plants at bay, but only slightly. Invariably, there are escapees and colonists. I repeat my digging procedure in June.
I wouldn’t mind the profusion, the sheer masses of Plume Poppies if they had any other qualities or features that made them worthwhile other than looking terrific. But as far as I can tell and from all of the sources I have checked, the plume poppy doesn’t seem to have any particular use as food or medicine. I don’t think any part of the plant is edible, yet, on the other hand, none of it is toxic. It does, according a couple of sources contain some potentially useful extracts, but not in any quantity worth harvesting. Though the sap from the stem might provide a good orange dye or stain, it has no other use. You can’t grind their roots up for flour, or pluck their leaves or stems for salads, or ingest their flowers as an aphrodisiac. And, unlike regular poppies, you cannot milk the stems or flower buds for hallucinogens or narcotics. You can only admire them.
And there are always so many of them to admire. Back in the 60s there was a movie entitled The Day of the Triffids. Plume poppies can put you in mind of those hard-charging, if entirely fictitious plants. Fortunately, Plume Poppies aren’t carnivorous; nor are they actually mobile, they just seem to be. All of this is a way of saying that, though the plume poppy may be lovely and attractive, spectacular even, you can’t have just one of them.
BUT, If you just can’t resist and you really must have A Plume Poppy, put it in a large container, or isolate it somehow. Perhaps you can find a place surrounded by some impervious surface, like concrete, though I suspect it would manage to undermine the whole thing and put up new shoots somewhere where you least expected and least wanted them. A safe bet might be a container on a roof deck, or the median strip on an urban highway. In fact, that may be the best spot of all. Then all of us could love and admire them…..from a safe distance. In that spirit I offer up this suggestion: Make the Plume Poppy the signature plant of the Guerilla Gardeners movement. Let Plumes Rule!
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