Annual Poppy talk

My first lily just opened today, and the poppies are still blooming like crazy, but the bottom leaves are starting to die on some. I love it that they are blooming at the same time because I think they go really well together!

Natalie

Birder ! are we talking about Oriental Poppies that bloom in late May here?
Or annual poppies that bloom in July here in z 6

Putting a little scissor in your bag and a few envelops makes saving seeds easier. They came in handy when I gathered some poppy seeds from the post office and some dianthus in front of the pizza parlor. I have a system. Winston the pug creates a diversion by peeing on a tree while I gather the seeds....

Rabbits are nibbling my California poppies. I hope they manage to drop a few seeds for next year before they disappear. My lettuce remains untouched.

No, man, I wish they were the Oriental Poppies! I can't get them to grow to save myself. I have planted them from seed for about four years now, and I don't have a single Oriental Poppy. I did buy some O. P. 'Victoria Louise' from a garden cntr, this spring. They were growing nicely. Then, I had a fire hydrant put in that garden. They put it in the wrong place where I would have had to walk across the garden to turn the faucet on and drag the hose across all of my plants. I will show you a picture because I like to "wail" about this every chance I get! :)

I really didn't know there were more than two kinds of poppies until I started reading on this website. I love the poppies--all of them. I purchased some Iceland Poppies this spring -they also went "south" with the hydrant. I am not sure if they would have come back anyway, but I would have liked to have seen if they would. I moved some of the flowers thinking they would not need the WHOLE garden to put in the hydrant.

The poppies I have used to be Peony Poppies. I have had them for 20 years or so. Now, most of them are the Poppy sominiferum with coral petals and lavender eyes (beautiful). This year, I had orchid peony poppies, red peony poppies, pink peony poppies, pink sominferum and the coral/lavender poppies. They are so interesting and fun to see what color I will have next year.

This garden was full of flowers. Here it is now:

Hi everyone, I was wondering if any one has had luck growing Peshawar Poppies? I want to get something white, that's no taller than 2' and blooms about late June to early July and they seem a perfect fit. So if anyone knows a good source for seeds please share. I placed a decent order of Poppy seeds from one stop poppies last year and I don't think I had even one germinate. One of the varieties was the Peshawar, so I won't order from there again. I sowed similar varieties of Poppies I got from other sources at the same time in the same spots and the ones from other sources germinated so I am pretty sure they didn't send good seeds. I found a site Poppy Seed Dreams, I'm thinking of ordering from the but they don't have Peshawar. :(

I just love those purple poppies, Audrey Purple I believe

meredith79

I thank you for the link as I have enjoyed poppies in others yards, never had much luck with them up north, so now I'm going to give them another shot. (Just hope I can keep this link away from DH eyes....lol)

Jan

Has anyone grown these?
I bought the seeds for the first time. As stated by tyhe seed cat. the flowers arent much but thye pods are interesting.
Either this plant is not Hens n Chicks or they are just not old enough to put on the ruffly skirts.

Thats what they are supposed to look like. These are minenow.

They definitely don't look like the first picture! Where did you get them from? I'll make sure to never get Hens & Chicks from there! I feel like finding good sources for poppy seeds is tough so it's good if we help each other avoid bad sources! Were the poppies at least pretty?

No they were really average red and single petaled. The company said they wouldnt be fantastic flowers,so I didnt pay much attention,waiting for the pods to be fun.
Pixie sent me a few seeds and I ordered more from Swallowtail seeds. I have gone into my reasons for not buying from One Stop Poppy Shop. Look in Garden Watchdog and other poppy posts for the reason.Too long to go into here.

Not sure if mine are going to produce the 'skirt' either Jo.

I'll grow them again for the flower.

Love the frilly ones. :)

Joann I've been hunting for Poppy seeds and all the palces that are advertising Hens and Chicks show flowers that look like Pixie's above. Pink with a purple blotch so I'm pretty sure if they were red they probably weren't Hens and Chicks :( So disapointing, so where did you get the ones that were red and supposed to be hens and chicks again?

This collage shows the last H&C to bloom ever,all other blooms are gone and seed pods are all that remaines. The other pix in the collage was taken of another plant earlier this month

I hate to be a wet blanket but check Swallowtail seeds for the flower. Its red.
I believe Pixies purple and dark throat are Heirloom poppies mix.
The trouble with poppies the colors change with bees working I think,not positive.

MY BAD I just googled and found both reds and pinks and purples.

This message was edited Jul 29, 2011 9:22 AM

This message was edited Jul 30, 2011 7:55 AM

I have the same red.....I believe they are Breadseed Poppies.

hMMMMMM

Zinnias keep the rabbits away???? They have been eating the California poppies to the ground and are moving on to my roses, clematis and dahlias. They are completely ignoring my lettuce. I have some extra seeds. It may be late, but I am planting more around !!!

I have been cleaning out the fridge - using up any hot pepper sauce on diy rabbit-be-gone. Winston the pug is a pacifist. He sits and watches the bunnies jumping around. He only chases pomeranians. (He is a doggy racist, and hates little yappy dogs) He is a little, mostly quiet dog himself.

Perhaps they come in different colors, but every picture I've seen of them showing the actual pod and flowers in the same shot are pink ones... http://www.flickr.com/photos/15565106@N00/3757228517/

I have a feeling if they aren't pink they are cross bred and maybe only some get the funky pods.

Pixie - did Post #8330812
above come from the Shirley Poppy mix? That is beautiful.

So should I try OSPS or another source? With the crazy weather I don't know if I trust scattering them outside so I will use the freezer! - is a week long enough?

I also think I sow to thick. Or just had poor luck with the ebay seeds. I had only a couple from each packet to produce a flower.
Kathy

Just my thoughts on the freezer idea. I am recieving some annual poppies this week. I will freeze them until May when we normally plant annuals of any kind in Z6.I havnt used the freezer method before but it makes sense.

Hey ge, I'm so glad you got this thread going. I ordered seeds from OSPS, and they've been in the freezer since early December. I plan on putting them out in the next few weeks, sown on top of the soil, so I'll be watching for your 2012 thread to get some good hints about poppy care. Any hints about how to stop the birds from eating the poppy seeds?

Sorry I dont have any bird advise. I must be really dense because I blammed bad gardener and then OSPS for no germination.
I have some screen from our door .It comes in a roll from HD.We use it to keep pine needles out of the water reserv so the pump doesnt clogg.
I usually sow my seeds on a area thats 2 feet square,sometimes smaller. I dont broadcast or scatter them and I sow them fairly dense,Like pepper on eggs. This way ,when they germinate I can id them and I dont walk on them or pull them out as weeds.
I plan to lay screen down amd anchor with stones. Keep an eye out for germination and take the screen off when you can see th plants.
I wouldnt think the birds would eat germinated seed.

I was thinking about the same thing, with keeping the seeds where you want them, not blown away or in a critter's path. Whether it be a bird eating them or a kitty that decides to go potty where you put your precious seeds! Someone once gave me the idea to use a milk jug or soda bottle with the bottom cut off and a stake through the hole to keep them from blowing away. It would make a mini greenhouse, similar to a winter sowing container too. It is a great idea but I've never actually tried it. Maybe this year I will!

I will do that too. Its easier than unrolling the mesh I found. I dont see the door screen anywhere.. The diameter of the bottle bottom is just right for the areas I have available.

I have used the open bottom milk jug for sowing larkspur seed. It helped me identify the Larkspur seed from weeds. It worked pretty well. I have trouble identifying larkspur seedlings from Love in a Mist seedlings. Larkspur is up and going strong--about three inches.

My poppies are up and going strong - about 3 inchs. Some of the areas are covered with poppy plants. They are the annuals.

I was weeding some of the flower beds in the past month on sunny, no wind days, and I found some exciting little seedlings and re-growth of plants from roots. I "may" have some Orental poppies this year. I planted Oriental Poppy seeds, in situ last year, and I think I may have some Oriental poppies. I have been trying for years for O. poppies. The foliage looks rougher, thicker and tougher than the annual poppies. Maybe someone can tell me if the foliage on O. Poppies looks different than the foliage on annual poppies.

I think the combination of Larkspur and Poppies is very pretty. However, larkspur did not come up where my poppies are. I have larkspur blooming amongst roses and it is quite striking.

I am going to try to transplant some Larkspur to where the Poppies are. They too, resent being moved. They have the long carrot like root like poppies. It's sunny today. I believe I will do it today.

this is a shot from early spring last year of orientals coming up. I will look for better ones.

Here are 2 shots of orientals. I think these may be self sown.The 3rd shot is of some popaver somniferum from seeds started in the basement 3 weeks ago. I hope this helps.

I also found a better shot. the ones in front left are regular poppies, the big fuzzy ones in back and one clump to the lower right are orientals

Those hairie leaves are a giveaway.

I found this picture of my poppy 'hill'. It has quite a blend of the grape, lavender, black etc. Oh well, as long as I am showing them. Here is one of the lavender that I call doubles or peony form sort of. And a closeup of the so called black.

Where did the black poppies originally come from?

I got them from another DG'r fall of 2010.

I haven't had any luck with Oriental Poppies. I had some seedlings that grew back for a couple years but never made it to flower and disappeared. I've also tried mature plants and they didn't come back. However they were very pot bound when I bought them, so that could have done them in.

Oberon, love your poppies. I've got Voilet Feathers and Black Cloud seeds that are dark like those, and I'm looking foward to seeing them bloom. I finally got my lazy butt in the yard today and started planting some of my poppy seeds. I put out Pink Skyline-a peony form, Meconopsis Lingholm, wish me luck with that one, some of White Cloud, and some of the mixed peony doubles. Most were sprinkled on the ground, and I put a few in pots. I gave them a light mist, since the dirt was already wet from the rain we'd had over the last few days. I'm soooo excited to see what gonna happen. Annette

This message was edited Feb 20, 2012 7:38 PM

Be sure to plant the meconopsis in the shade where you would plant hosta or ferns. Your heat down there out in the open would be pretty warm for them. I planted some last year in colors I don't have and managed to get one to germinate and was fairly healthy in the fall when it disappeared under the snow. I have my fingers crossed that it survivies. Should be either white or yellow.

Thanks so much for the advice :~). That was exactly where they got planted, in the bed that only gets brief morning sun, that already has hostas, cora bells, bleeding heart, and some azaleas planted. It's the coolest side of the house, right outside my kitchen window. This past fall I planted a flat of champagne mix poppies there, and they're doing extremely well.