cold today 33* high of 43* not like last year.
planting poppy seed-I'm a failure!!
My daughter sent me a text from Michigan yesterday. They got 3 inches of snow.
KRAPS .Is it ever going to stop?
Just before the last surprise snow, a few weeks ago, I spread the poppies and see them coming up now!
Mine are up and more or less holding off growth just sitting there at the three or four true leaf stage. They too are waiting for warmer weather.
I'M also a failure with the indoors grown poppy seeds. Spreaded the annual seeds several weeks ago outside. I see several coming up. Largest established plant so far this spring.
Thats a handsome example of Oriental Poppy.
I dont bother to start annuals inside.
HazleCrestMikeB, thank you for posting that picture! I have been trying for so long to get some poppies established, especially oriental, only to have them "disappear." But this spring a plant came up that greatly resembled an oriental poppy plant - except that we have a weed here that also resembles them. My plant now looks exactly like the plant in your picture. (I had thought the orientals were more of a grayish-green than the bright green of these.) The only problem now is that mine does not get a whole lot of direct sun. Dare I hope that it will bloom? If it blooms you will hear me shouting way up there in Illinois. I am hopeful because my peony plants do not get a great deal of direct sun. At first they did not bloom well, but now they are getting established and used to the site and are blooming well.
The moral of all this, I think, is to keep trying!
Bright greens are usually Orientals especially if they are a bit furry.
It's furry! By George, I think I've got it!
You are the proud owner of a Oriental Poppy.
atta go
I had to move my oritentals last year and I missed the bloom. This year I will get all the ones I moved and the new ones I planted. I can't wait. I just wish one of the thousand or so annual seeds I threw on the snow will actually produce at least one poppy.
I think I'll put up a plaque.
Do you know which variety you planted?
I was walking the edge of my garden that borders the neighbor. There were OP's comming up in his lawn ,about 10 ,scattered.
I must have lost a bucket full of roots when transplanting to my border. He will mow over them I'm sure. Or spike them out with his weeder.
I used to think those plantes were so fragile. NOT.
In my desperation I planted orientale, rhoeas AND somniforem - anything for a poppy!
Can't somebody get the plants that got "spilled?"
If I keep trying sooner or later I will get the conditions just right and get a nice bed of poppies started.
Does this look like HazelCrestMikeB's plant, or what? (A little knocked about by today's storm.)
Thats a nice Oriental Poppy. perennial not annual.
Somnifariums are annual,they cast seeds where they grow so people thinhk its a perennial but not.
One of my Pataty plums seedlings. This was started in the basement , then taaransplanted into cell pacs under lights ,next hardened off by plaving on patio for an hour or two each day finally planteed to garden.
Thank you, ge1836 - now all I have to do is wait for it to bloom. If necessary I will build a greenhouse around it and add lighting (but I hope it's not necessary - I already spent all available funds on spring planting.) At last I, too, have a poppy!
No need to pamper the OP's. They are hardy. They bloom ( maybe not this year ) then the leaves look like the plant is dying and dried up. In a little while you will see the winter growth start. It stays green all winter.
I grow OP from seed every year. Everything I planted last year is already huge this year. I also ordered more from graceful gardens I love their plants These are the ones I ordered this year.
bookreader451, those are absolutely GORGEOUS. I am greener than their leaves with envy. Whenever you happen to have a minute, could you outline for me in words of one syllable how you prepare the soil and sow and cultivate to grow your OP?
I start them indoors in saved plastic sixes. They are deep and you don't disturb the tap when you plant. I keep the seeds in the fridge always then just get a few on a toothpick and scatter. I usually keep them in the basement under lights where it is cooler. I plant new poppies every year and they will bloom the next. The only type that blooms the first year is icelandic, as for annuals...........well can't get them to grow at all!
My soil is garden soil from the cow farm. My backyard is full of HUGE rocks.so I used them to outline raised beds and after removing the sod and working what I could I put down about 6 inches of garden soil. The soil is a mixture of topsoil and manure compost and you can grow anything in it. I don't do anything else really. Just let them grow.
I am determined to have poppies and so will have to figure out a way to follow this routine. In some ways my garden is already similar to yours. We are on the side of a scoured-off hill and I have had to put in raised beds to be able to grow what I want. Do you think Miracle-Grow garden soil (not the "potting soil") would be similar to your cow farm soil? (Though I could probably find a local cow farm. How old does the manure have to be?)
I am very inexperienced with starting from seed and this will be the hard part. We have a basement but it is the kingdom of the cats. Also gro-lights are expensive. Have to study on this part.
I did not realize that you routinely plant one year for the next year. Thank you so very much, Bookreader, for taking the time to share your experience and knowledge. I promise you will have the first pictures of my BEAUTIFUL poppies!
I bought the five shelf metal racks from Target and I use shop lights they hang from the racks nicely. I use 2 lights per shelf and then when seed starting is over I fill the racks with preserves I make all summer!
Gro-Lights in the Shop-Light holders?
I use the regular florecents and they are fine.
You guys - guess what, guess what, guess what! It's sending up a bud. It IS an oriental poppy and it's sending up a bud.
Maybe this is routine for some of you, but I have SLAVED for this beast. (I spent nine years in the Arctic with no flowers at all and then moved to new construction and had to start building a garden from bare soil.)
Anyway, I have had so many failures and have made so many mistakes that I am just THRILLED to be having this bloom. (Should I send out birth announcements?)
But it's not perennial, is that right? I have to sow this year to have some bloom next year?
Pictured here are all of four tomato seedlings and two peppers. They are in official yogert cups being raised under my wife's sewing machine lamp. This lamp is one white ring with a warm florecent in the center. Those new florescent bulbs are fine for me. I used to have hundreds of seedlings. Four of these will make the grade and be around the edge of our patio wall. Everything else will be in a mixture of pots. Bi Jimminy there are no more large gardens to hoe here.
Rebeccatowoc! your gaining on it.Hang in there. We all have had triumpths like this and share your joy.
Rebecca we are happy for you. Orientals are Perennials as was mentioned earlier in this thread. there is a huge variety of OP out there. As Timeinabottle mentioned, Patty Plum is one that I also planted last year along with Heartbeat, Turkenlouis, Jacinth, Harlem, Manhattan, Shasta. Have two in the basement that came in the mail last week Flamenco and Paradiso. Got some Red Shades from High Country Gardens last year and this thing took off like a WEED (LOL!), so much so I was able to transplant a nice clump between the Turkenlouis. They are all doing well so I am very excited to finally (hopefully) see the new stuff bloom this year and possibly a rebloom from the reported rebloomers. Hope my season here is long enough for a rebloom. Mike
Oh yea, I got Harlem too to add to the NY series.
Thank you, everybody, for your encouragement and advice.
So now that I have one established Oriental, it, at least, will keep coming back each year? I will, of course, sow and plant others, but would like to feel secure of this one.
(Sorry to be anal about it. Hey, one step at a time, right?)
Rebecca O pops are perennials and you will have them forever or therabouts. I love your trial error and try again approach...To me that is the heart of gardening.
Thank you, timeinabottle. An amazing thing has happened in my garden. Essentially a miracle.
One reason I have had difficulty getting things established is that we are in the middle of the woods and sunlight is in short supply. The recent storm, during all the terror in the middle of the night, took out a huge maple that had been weakened, first by a drought and then by borers. The maple pushed over two smaller trees with it as it fell.
The result is that a corridor of sunlight has been opened into the heart of the garden. No garden plants were hurt or touched in the process. The crashing limbs landed about eight inches away from a large bed of sedum, and obliterated a place from which just last week I had moved some tiarella to a new location. Even the tall, gangly, purple columbine just opening was unharmed.
Now I have a bright sunny location for more oriental poppies and other beautiful plants. I don't know why we have received this blessing while others were badly hurt in the same storm. In the past, sometimes we have suffered and others, not. Among the many splendors that a garden represents, it also illustrates the omnipotence of God, the complexity of his purposes, and the infinity of his grace.
They just get bigger and better every year. Congradulations
Nothing at all wrong with the plant, fuss it and lose it only to try again. There are so many ways we lose a plant or seedling that I highly suspect many just do not even consider a loss a special issue because it seems to go on and on from year to year. When and if I have multiple losses with the same plant I tend to try some other similar plant. Elimination of the difficult or marginal plants in my patch is a "goes with" on page one of my gardening book. Most gardeners have some problems. Those who say they don't lie about their sex lives too. ]:o)
Doc, You are so right!! I don't consider a plant a true failure unless I've managed to kill it at least 2 or3 times! Even then I'll probably try it again-I guess gardeners are gluttons for punishment! Add that to the fact that we always crave that which we cannot have and it's no wonder ordinary people think we are a bit odd!!
A case in point: I started this thread a little more than a year ago, since then I have sowed poppy seed in fall, some more in winter and see NOTHING yet! I hit the greenhouses today and bought a potted poppy (unnamed "mix" with 2-3 crowns) and just planted it tonight. My plan is to keep trying until I have poppies, darn it!
It was so nice of everyone who contributed to the thread for sharing their wisdom and experience with me and keeping my hopes alive. I will purchase fresh seed in fall and try winter sowing again. If I have any success I will share pictures here with everyone!! MW
Hey, mwhit - believe me, if I can get one, you can get one. I failed for years in three different states before you even started this thread. You will be so happy when your poppies are blooming, and I can't wait to see your pictures!
hang in there