Perennials: What Poppies Will You Grow This Year?, 1 by mulchmania

mulchmania wrote:
Hi cchjja, (now there's an interesting moniker) I am happy to see another Montanan. Happily poppies like it here in this climate, at least the ones you are talking about.

When I am starting a new bed of shirleys I like to get it tilled, composted, whatever I am going to do to it, preferably in the fall. Then I broadcast the teensy little seeds, often directly on the snow, and they sprout in the spring when it is still moist with snow melt, rain, etc. They come up ridiculously early when allowed to do so, and they do fine that way.

In real life I have not often gotten things ready in the fall. Which means I wait until I can dig the dirt after it has dried out enough not to be muck. This is unfortunate because when I scatter the seeds I have a real project on my hands keeping them wet. The seeds are so tiny that when they first begin to germinate, drying out for any time at all is lethal to them. I am convinced this, or getting the wee seeds covered so they cannot come up, are the biggest reasons for failure in getting poppies started. So I am out there sprinkling the bed really often on sunny windy days when the top layer dries out nearly instantaneously. If you can keep them wet on that thin surface long enough to send roots down, they will make it. Miss a beat and they are little shriveled messes.

Iceland poppies I start in the greenhouse and set out after frost danger is over, around June 1. That way they can bloom the first year.

I mulch the poppies as they grow up, which helps hold moisture in the soil, encourages earthworms, etc. I primarily use green grass clippings because they are the first (and about the only) thing I found I could spread and not have blow away immediately that will still decompose into the soil. The poppies will self seed in this mulch if you do not put too much green material on later in the summer, allow it to start decomposing, and not have it too thick. Getting the thick enough/not too thick balance is a matter of practice. Partially decomposed grass clippings do not inhibit germination like green grass clippings do.

Another thing to keep in mind is poppies do like it sunny.

And I see nothing wrong with spending a chunk of time gathering information on such a richly stocked site as this one and then figuring out how to apply it to your own garden. What on earth is January for, anyway? ;-)