It is so steamy today.Temp 74* and humidity 91% I will try to update annual poppies beginning here.Too dark now.
My direct sown Annual Poppie diary
Very interesting tuitorial! Now I have a question for you, when you have HOS like that and usually everybody has them their first year of WS, what is the best way to thin those delicate seedlings? When you thin them out while they are in the ground like yours was, I think I've seen pictures in gardening books that you just cut or pull carefully some of the seedlings to thin them out. Do you actually pull the seedlings up root and all and replant it elsewhere? I WS my Brillian red oriental poppies in milk jugs. I've had one to bloom but the other HOS still are struggling to grow, but when they got two sets of seeds, I planted them in flowerbeds. Maybe it would be easier to plant in flats or cell packs. Just an observation. It will be interesting thing to try sowing them like you did. I just can't imagine how the seeds would have found their way to the ground under 55 in. of snow we had last Feb. And them more when the sidewalks that led up to the house were shoveled and more snow thrown on top of snow. Our front yard became hugh mounds of snow where it was all piled from shoveling and the bobcat threw up there. There was no place to put all of the white stuff. Our court of 18 houses for a month looked like some of these pictures the astronauts send from outer space! Wouldn't it be a good experiment if a small airplane, like a crop duster type could just spread the seeds out a window from above and see all the poppies grow where they landed?
I have never believed snow sown poppies germinate.I only have 1 instance of trying that.
I find a December day whan its still not snowing( our storms begin in January) I find a spot where I want the clump to grow and rake off any mulch os weeds or leaves and sprinkle in a 12 inch circle.This is to keep the plants from being mistaken for weeds in early May.
I doubt it's possible to transplant the plugs thaken from therse thick clumps of teeny weenies.Some people have had sucess with it but not me.There are going to be losses this "thick sow " way but once you establish a group that re seeds itself you should be on your way.
I hope I didn't miss something in your first message but do you recall when you direct sowed those poppy seeds? I'm assumming that one needs to clear away mulch so that the seeds will fall on bare soil? Do I need to kind of rake up the area first? I love that rock marker "Rose" was that to mark a rose bush or color or variety of poppy seeds?
Yes you need to clean the area of anything that keeps the seeds from comming into contact with the soil.
The seeds need soil and light and a period of cold freezing weather in order to germinate.
Dont mulch over the sowen seeds either.
I sow in December to March but not later than that.
Pippi - It was my marker you spotted for the Japanese iris, Rosewater. Thanks for the compliment.
Guess I need an update here. Its 4:30 AM and too dark for a pix
at cha later.
Remember the survivor from last winter.Here it is. Got a bud,cant wait to see if its Nice Red.
This is the clump of Ry Beaners. Lavander with dark center.
I keep thinning.Its beyond reach now that lilies are filling in.
OK poppy lovers!
You got me hooked on this thread and now I need to know if they bloomed for you!?!
Did you think no one was lurking here?! t.
Geezer moment sorry. The big patch of Venus poppies are barely starting to bloom.Buds still bent.
Here is the "Nice Red" that wintered next to a slab of granit in the garden
This is the patch April 8 2011
This was taken this morning.Its a day or 2 before they are all open
The poppies with the salmon lilies are the same as in the beginning of this years sown.
Oh, so they aren't yet totally in bloom?
Poppies are mid summer bloomers and I always think of them as spring bloomers...
I'll check back in a couple of days for the full display!
Thanks. t.
Guess it would have helped to have the full bloom photo.This is as good as they will get.
ge, how many different poppies are you growing??
I love the salmon colored ones in the last pic. Are they the Venus?
But somehow I thought poppies were tall and blowsy? Maybe those are a different kind?
Thanks for the follow-ups. I am finally getting the hang of poppies I think.
Those are the selfseed Venus from last year. I am disapointed in them.Last years parents were as tall as the lilies.
These are whimps as are nearly all annual poppies growing in my gardens. I think it was the cold wet spring.