My direct sown Annual Poppie diary

Some of you have taken the big adventure and cast seeds on the snow or bare ground in the dead of winter.
Its hard to believe these seeds need a long cold period before they will germinate.
I am not completely sure seeds sown in April wont germinate too,its just that I have always gone by my grandmother way of doing it.
I saw my first leaves last year on April 17th.
I have been checking since we have had such a warm early spring and sure enough I believe these are them.
I will continue to photo them so we can identify and watch their progress.
These are Venus seeds,sown on the northeast side of the house after we laid down horse manuer so they should get to be a good size.
The sprouts are 2 pale graygreen thread looking leaves.
I will photo again in a few days. If by next week they have broadened out and are showing some serrated edges I will know for sure they are poppies.
I tried to look in the JI garden but cant get close enough to see.
These are really teeeeeny and you have to look realllly hard.
These are in the place where I sowed the poppies.

Lets hope it's them.

You should be able to tell when they get their second pair of leaves. They are pretty distinctive, as you know.

I have had a positive id.
They are annual poppies.I am stoked.
I will take and post another pic in a week, should see second set of leaves then.

O K it's been a week and we have had cold weather .
There isnt much to report as far as another set of leaves on those Venus babies.
They are there but my macro lense just isnt macro enough.

O K so its been 2 weeks. Its been cold here and not enough progress of the Venus poppies to be of any note.
Here is what I took this AM
As you can see some of the earlier sprouts have second leaves and there is a huge load of newbies with 2 leaves comming on. I guess this means dont give up if you dont see all the sprouts at once.
When conditions are right the germination happens.
I am watching another part of the garden for poppies I sowed. Not a sprout but I wont loose hope until the lilies are blooming. LOL

They don't look like poppy seedlings to me. The second pair of leaves should be jagged.

Wait 2 weeks.

This is a clump of poppies in another garden.
I noticed them a week ago.They might be the ones I thought hadnt germinated. These are from One Stop Poppies.I hope.

This message was edited Apr 22, 2010 5:13 AM

I am THRILLED that you posted that photo. I thought I had weeds but they were all so identical that I didn't move them, meaning to write to you. THANK YOU!

I always sow very thick so I can ID the newbies.No weed comes up here in such abundance.
I am so glad about your poppies.
I made this diary so others wouldnt weed them out.It has happened to me so often.
Then there was the year I used Preen.
Dont go there.

I'll take photos and post tonight.

I wish you luck. The picture is kind of small, but those leaves still do not look like the true leaves of poppy seedlings. The initial leaves are the same in all dicotyledonous plants. They're called embryonic leaves. The second pair of leaves are called true leaves and should look like the leaves of a grown plant, only in miniature. Notice that the second pair of leaves in those pics are smooth and that the leaf itself is pointed. When I have grown poppy seeds, the second pair of leaves looks like a tiny poppy leaf, not pointed, not smooth. I have some seeds coming up now but they are only just germinating. Unfortunately, there are indeed weed seeds that will germinate like that. Chickweed, in particular.

I'm still holding out for poppies.Cause thats where I threw the seeds.
Maybe i took a pic of weeds mixed in .

I hope these are the poppy seeds!

They sure look like poppies to me. See the jagged leaves that are the second set?

Most definatly they are. Yours are several weeks ahead of mine.
That's what I expect to see in another couple of weeks.

Thank you! A triple huge thank you to ge1836 for sending me the seeds! This just makes my day!

teee hee
This diary is for gardeners who are sowing annual poppies for the first time.
I'll photograph in another couple of weeks.
Meanwhile Pirls are ahead of mine so hers are what mine will look like in a couple of weeks.

They are looking more like poppies since we had 2 days of rain.

That one in the middle looks like it could be a poppy.

There are more like it,these are the easiest to photograph with out doing damage to the lilies and iris
. I agree there might be a few weeds in there too.
Poppies will win.

I am experimenting with direct sowing poppies now. We still have cold nights and some days in the 40's, there is a place where I want poppies and dont see any.
I double ordered Giant Whites and Hungarian Blues and will sow half the seeds. If no germination occures I will save the other half of the order for this fall.

Here in the south we have to sow in Oct/Nov. I was a little late this year (just lazy) - not throwing out most until Dec.

It might not work because the nights are getting warmer.Its an amazing spring,almost a month early.
I do have sprouts from the poppies I sowed in November.

My poppy seeds came and I have sown them and marked where I sowed. I'll check in a week to see if they germinated.

Good luck!

we will have cool nights this week after the front goes thru temps in the low 40's hope its enough.

These are the poppies that started this thread.
The "late plant experiment" was started 10 days ago and there is no sign of germination.

Thanks to you, ge, I have tons of your Heirloom poppies coming up and just tried moving a clump and it seems to have worked! I did it last week and it's remained perky.

The photo on the left shows them as of 5/1 - big difference from photo on right taken 4/21.

I think every seed must have germinated! Thank you, Jo Ann!

Pirl! I seem to remember someone on poppyforum last year ,say they do better if moved in a clump,almost a plug.I have never moved so many ,nor have I thinned them which would probably be a good thing.I am just too chicken to take a chance.

I figured they were so thick that it couldn't hurt to take the chance. Taking a clump helps preserve the tender/tiny roots.

Amen

Too hard to take a final picture of the poppies direct sowed last winter. Take my word for it they are 6 inches high and I am thinning them.

Its been awhile Here is the latest baby pic.

Two beautiful Heirloom poppies, from seeds Jo Ann (ge1836) sent me, are blooming. I am SO happy! Thanks, ge!

I meant to write to you to see if anything was blooming yet.
Do you have lots of buds?

Yes, I do. I'm beyond thrilled and I'd take photos but it's too hot out there for me. I get wimpier as I get older.

Nothing like dealing with the bloodpressure problemd heat and humidity causes.

This is what bloomed from last Novembers direct sowing.

How lovely!