Hi, everybody--
I am thinking about my peony, iris, and lupine border and would like to add some Oriental Poppies to bloom next spring with them--I am wondering if I should try to buy poppy plants now on fall close-out sales and get them into the ground so they can bloom on time next spring, or should I grow from seed this fall or spring. I am thinking of the oriental poppy 'Patty's Plum', in particular, but others would be nice, too.
I don't really understand the differences in the poppies, whether they are annuals that reseed themselves, or perennials, or either/or, and then I read somewhere on the internet that Opium poppies are illegal to grow in the U.S. and the catalogs aren't offering them anymore...mmmm...very confusing.
I did try to grow poppies last spring, but they are still sitting in the garden---didn't do a thing all summer. No blooms. No growth. Full sun. Good soil. (maybe too good?).
If there are any poppy fanciers out there, please let me know what might work the best. I love them, but I'm having trouble getting them going in my garden.
Thanks a million. t.
Oriental Poppies? When can I plant?
Oriental poppies should be planted in the fall. You can order them from various suppliers (Dutch Gardens is one I have used), and you'll receive them in bare root form. Plant them in a well-drained place, in full sun if you have it. I have some in partial shade, but they get floppy--not an ideal situation. They may grow some leaves before frost, depending upon how late you plant them. If not, you'll see leaves in early spring. After they bloom, the foliage yellows pretty quickly and they're ratty looking, so put them near things that will cover that up until you cut it back. Although it might be possible to grow them from seed, I don't think it's widely done. However, there are other types of poppies that are always grown from seed and that reseed freely.
I bought a 6 pack of perennial poppies on clearance a month or so ago. They didnt like being moved and if fact dies back and started new leaves but stayed small. Dont know why first time i have tried them
I love poppies to and will share some of my experiences with them. With Oriental poppies, I used to get 3packs of seedlings from a greenhouse and the foliage would grow during the first part of the summer, then go dormant and they bloomed the 2nd year and therafter. I love planting perennial gypsophylla(sp?)-babies breath with them because it fills in the area when they go dormant, and reminds me not to dig there. I've never purchased the bareroot plants offered in the catalogs and have tried, but never had any luck with seed.
The opium poppies are available as seed. The peony flowered poppies are usually opium poppy hybrids and are easily grown from seed and will often reseed themselves. I have the best luck sowing in late winter or early spring directly in the garden.
Iceland poppies are fun and easy to. Seed sown in fall or late winter directly in the garden worked well for me. Seems like the cool temps and lack of compitition helped the tiny seeds germinate. I often had volunteers the next year. They're especially pretty grown with larkspur, which is sown at the same time.
Hope that gives some food for thought tabasco, and good luck. This is making me really miss poppies. They love sunny meadows and I have'nt been able to provide enough sun for them since I've lived here in the woods. Guess I need to set aside some space in the veggie garden for them- I keep doing that; flowers always win out over food!
Tabasco, I just planted a few hundred poppy seeds! :) I mixed them with all kinds of hollyhocks to hopefully cover the wilting foliage in late summer. I will let you know how it goes next spring, if I remember. :)
Here are the poppies I planted:
Papavar somniferum paeoniflorum
Papaver bracteatum Great Red
Not your traditional Oriental or Iceland, but interesting varieties nonetheless.
Nick
tabasco, Oriental Poppies are true perennials. I agree that the best time to plant them is in the fall. I planted mine last spring and got one flower from two plants. This spring, I saw new growth in early April, which was frozen and thawed several times before our late, cold and wet spring finally waned enough for flowering, and the flowers were just spectacular. They don't like to be moved, so decide on a spot and leave them there. When the foliage dries up after flowering, I slowly remove it as it dries, and new foliage grows. I've heard of them blooming again in warmer climates. They're an incredibly hardy plant, and they like lots of sun.
Thanks for all the good information. I am ordering several and will try them in a nice sunny spot with iris, peonies, etc. Hope to have something bloom (this time!).
I would like to divide my oriental poppy. Is fall the time to do it? Is it hard to do?
My Oriental Poppy bed shares its habitat with some thistles whose foliage looks just like the poppy foliage. It is such a struggle to get those darn thistles out of there. I invariably spray or dig the poppies by mistake. Have a "clean" bed to start with ... or at least make sure that thistles don't like that area! It will be a lot easier. LOL
greenthumb_OH
Well, greenthumb, that's exactly what I did with some poppies I tried to start from seed last year. Pulled them out thinking they were thistle, then, of course, left some thistle weed, thinking it was my poppy crop!
caitlin--sorry, I don't know enough about poppies (duh!) to answer your question. I'm sure somebody will come to the rescue, though...
Oriental poppies are best divided in the fall. They are rather like peonies in that they don't really need to be divided and aren't especially excited about blooming profusely for a year or so afterward. When you do it, be sure that the root pieces you plant are at least two or three inches long, preferably with some new growth showing (it may not have emerged yet). The crown should be about two inches below the soil surface. Good drainage and full sun are important, but otherwise these plants require little care.
Kneff, Thanks for replying. Should I just dig alongside the plants and find a root with some new growth and cut it out? The plant roots left alone ought to do just fine next year, right?
Caitlin--I don't see any reason why what you suggest wouldn't work. I've only divided by digging up the whole plant and splitting it up, but your idea might preserve the bloom in the parent plant.
I'm not an expert here but I did start poppies from seed a couple of years ago. A variety
called "Brilliant" that are kind of orangy-red. I had so many plants to plant out that spring
I put them into my peony bed since there was space there. My pink peonies. Well- realizing
what stupid mistake that was, I dug up the poppies the next spring and put them along the
edge of my vegatable garden. They grew up again in front of the peonies. So I dug those
up and moved them to the same area. I did this three times before I got all the root bits out.
So - two lessons: 1) Think carefully about the peony vs poppy colors before combining and
2) poppies can be propagated by digging much but not all of the roots out with the plant (in spring).
Here's the new poppy location in bloom.
Tam
Thanks tammy, good points! and btw--your garden looks so charming and delightful with your poppies and the rustic fence... t.
I get the Parks/Wayside email newsletters where subscribers send in gardening tips. A lady submitted some Oriental poppy tips that sounded very interesting. She had orange-red poppies near her pink peonies (same problem you had Tammy) and decided to just remove the flower buds and move them in the fall. To her suprise they bloomed later in the summer. She said now she chooses clumps every spring to remove the buds for later bloom. The plants that recieved this treatment were smaller clumps when they have late bloom, so she alternates each year which one she pinches so that none are permanantly weakened. Oriental poppies are so spectacular, it would be great to have extended bloom time from them. Have any of you tried or heard of this idea?
Tabasco, I just realized you said you're adding poppies to your iris,peony,lupine garden. How do lupines perform for you? After many tries, I gave up on them figuring our summers are just too hot, but if you've found a variety that will do well in your area, they should perform here. I turn green with envy when I see pics of those voluminous, colorful spikes!
gemini--I confess, I have one lupine plant which I just put in in July so I don't really know how it will perform here. I just thought I'd try it since I like them, too. Will let you know how it goes!
Where is Morehead, btw?! Close at all to Cincy?
Happy gardening. t.
Hi tabasco. I'm about 1 1/2-2 hours from Cincy-pretty easy going through Flemingsburg and Maysville and taking AA highway(I think). I've considered trying Lupines again since I now live in a cooler microclimate; this hollow is usually 5-10 degrees cooler than it is in town. Don't those pictures of cottage gardens full of lupines, roses, peonies, and iris just make you green with envy! I keep hoping a hybrid will show up that tolerates summer heat. The Texas bluebonnet is a species of lupine and it must take heat-hopefully some mad scientist plant fiend will introduce those genes into the mix and give us hot summer dwellers lupines we can grow.
There was a lupine in a little garden in front of our house when we moved here.
I never realized how lucky I was! I collected seeds and started babies but only
got 1-2 yrs growth at best with the babies. I did start "tutti-fruiti" from Thompson
Morgan a couple of years ago and they've come back 2 yrs now - but not with
a lot of vigor.
Tam
My experience with Oriental Poppies from plant are it will not bloom the first year.....Mine took actually 3 years to really bloom. The second year I had a few blooms....True to perennial lour, the first year the sleep, the second year they creep and the third year they leap.
After they bloom and die back, they do get pretty "ratty" looking, I just cope with it and cut them way back. I have two colors, the bright orange and a pink...
Deann
Here are some of the pink ones....
tabasco......are you talking about the poppies that we got from Nardia??? I think that is how her name was spelled.....they were a $1.00 for each kind?? I bought $12.00 worth from her, and none of mine germinated either. I am not trying to start something here with those seeds, but generally speaking poppies are very easy to grow....infact some to the point of being invasive as they reseed so well....
Deann
No, deann, my poppy starts were from my sister. Yours are beautiful and so colorful...they are worth the wait to have, aren't they!...
Also went out to check on my baby lupines and I can't find it now! Do the rabbits like them?! Oh, dear! t.
Hi, again, poppy fanciers---
I have been procrastinating about my poppy and peony garden after rereading this thread and the good advice on the combinations--but I suppose if I am to buy some poppy plants I'd better get to it!
I am wondering what the best 'value for money' source would be--any ideas? ( I can't bear to pay at least $8.95 for a plant, but, unless they go on sale, that looks like the ball park amount...) E-bay, maybe?
I am looking for (to buy) either white poppies with a dark spot in the middle or a dark poppy--I notice there is a chocolate colored poppy and then some dark purple kinds too...do any of you know of the best sources with a sale? any opinions?
These are two well known poppy plant purveyors (LOL)...but, there must be others...but no sale indicated (yet).
http://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/peonies-for-fall-planting-page2.html
Also, had to chuckle about the Lupines...I was reading Christopher Lloyd's "The Year at Great Dixter" and he confessed he had trouble with lupines too, and generally just got rid of them after the first bloom and started the next year's from seed again. So gave up on lupines myself and purchased a collection of Siberian Iris in the purples and whites from Ensata Gardens....then will put the white, chocolate or plum poppies in with them....
http://www.dutchgardens.com/Shopping/sell.asp?ProdGroupID=21752&DeptPGID=18247&lstCategory=0
Is that plan any good? It is hard to get away from the Orange poppies, isn't it?! They seem to be everywhere! I like them, too, but of course not with the peony pink range...
Thanks. t.
tabasco, I love the colors you're looking for in poppies to, and it seems the only way to get them is the expensive roots. While Dutch Gardens has the better price of the 2, I had cruddy experiences with their perennials, with a high mortality rate (I never get that, I baby pricy babies!). I always had good experiences in the past with their bulbs, but lately have had mislabling issues with their bulbs and perennials.
WWF, have gotten pretty pricy, and who can stand to just buy a couple of poppies!? I've seen mixed reports on the Watchdog on them lately to.
A couple of possibilities may be Wayside/Parks or Krazy Keith's Garden Shed. I'm signed up for the Wayside/Parks email list, and the only time I consider buying from them is when they have those sales. I know in the past I've seen 'Patty's Plum' on sale for less than $5. I've seen mixed reports on the quality of their perennials, but they guarantee everything and my experience was good with them when something did'nt perform (most things did).
When those sales are going on, often Krazy Keith's has some of the same things on sale and I've read many of the plants come from the same growers as Wayside/Parks.
If I see them on sale at either place (or somewhere else) I'll let you know. Good luck, Neal.