This poppy was three feet tall and had just opened one flower this morning. By the afternoon it was dead. We had a heavy attack of wind. The poppy was uprooted. Once removed from the soil, it wilted. When I saw it, I screamed. Here is how it looked this morning.
Did you try and replant it? How awful that it was blown over.
By the time I saw it, it was too late, it had deflated, or wilted. But, these poppies usually do not take any kind of transplanting. They die right away after being transplanted, which is why you have to grow them from seed. In some rare cases a young plant may survive being transplanted, but only a seedling not a full grown one. If they transplanted, I would have traded some of them at the swap.
More of them have blown over, and they seem to be very shawllow rooted. I have only a few bread seeds left and no orientals left.
Oh, Bug_girl, I know how you feel! My Orientals kept getting shredded by those fierce winds just as they would put up new blooms! Drat!
I've been growing two others that are more wind-resistant (plus I'm trying to site them better, LOL). One of the Annie's Annuals, P.commutatum 'Lady Bird' -- red and black just like a ladybug -- is shorter, about 1x1', so the winds don't knock it over like the taller Orientals. Plus it just puts up a ton of blooms, I must have gotten 3 dozen flowers from a single plant in a 6 week period! Like it so much I got another one and now that's just started to flower.
The other one is the Mexican bush poppy, Hunnemannia. Pale yellow blooms and silvery green foliage, very lacy plant. This one takes NO SUMMER WATER and has been blooming continuously for me ever since I put it in the ground in January! I water the plants around it but never put water on it directly, it's on the front edge of a sloping bed so it drains fast and will stay quite dry. I bought this one at Berkeley Horticultural and am just amazed by it.
Oooohhhh, jkmom, I love about the 'Annie's Annuals' idea! I haven't heard of this before, gotta add it to my wish list for next year! Thanks :)
Bug_girl, so sorry to hear about your poppies! Wind uprooted a couple of mine, but they were still young, so I got them back into the ground, and they survived. They didn't get very big, or have many flowers, but they did at least survive. They were just starting to grow their flower stalk when they were uprooted (corn poppies not breadseed or Orientals).
I have a west exposure, and there is wind from the ocean, that is very strong, so I have no area that is wind free in the back yard. But ca poppies do ok, because they are not woody, and so the wind does not lift them up, also they are very short. Only taller plants get blown down.
Bug_Girl: "...and they are very short" I am not sure why, but mine are about 36" long. They collapsed all over the other plants, but when I extend them out, they are that long. They are just the regular ones, I think; not an improved variety.
This is the first year growing them for me, so I figured they just naturally got that long and floppy. Not enough sun maybe? They get sun from about 10 am till 3 pm, then again from 5 pm till dark at 8. Or maybe because I keep them deadheaded? (They have been blooming since mid-May, and are still blooming. Hundreds of flowers!)
If the soil is too rich they may spread out and fall down, but for me they are less likely to do that. My plan is to have one area in which the soil is sandier for the poppies.
You can add sand if you have clay soil, I have sand soil, so it is no problem. I am gardening in pure sand, with compost, however, sand means there is less root anchorage. In otherwords, clay can help keep the plants from being uprooted by wind.
That could be an important factor: I have extra heavy clay soil. It varies, of course, by location, but in the bed with my poppies, the soil is about 70% clay and 20% silt. The rest is organic matter (no sand at all!)
With so much clay, my soil is extra-fertile. I haven't planted nasturtiums for the last couple of years because of too much foliage, compared with flowers. Just never took the time to plant any in containers where I could control the soil. Next year!!!
My nasturtiums like some of my sweet had too much vegative growth. I heard nasturtiums like sand and low water, however, if you do that then the leaves can really look awful, but you will get the most flowers. I see them growing around here as weeds, with no one watering and those have the most flowers, but they are ruined by the leaves which look diseased. Watering and tending keeps the leaves look good, but very few flowers. Everyone has sand in my area, I am near the ocean.
Bug Girl sorry to hear about your poppy. Oriental poppies can be propagated by root cuttings though as well as by seed.
