What Poppies Will You Grow This Year?

What kinds of poppies are you planning to grow this year?

I am intending my usual avalanche of shirley poppies. I should have Iceland poppies again as well, and I want to start a new batch of orientals. I currently am not going to try Meconopsis again as my conditions are too awful for it. I may have to build a special mini greenhouse to get enough climate control to grow those, darn it.

Here is a painting of one of my shirley poppies, was 60" wide by 46" high.

That painting is marvelous, but marvelous seems too paltry a description. I'd love to have a poppy picture of that size and quality, but alsa, lack the wall space to hang it. Who is the artist ? Oils, acrylic, or ? I'm envious.

As for the new batch of poppies, a dozen or so assorted Orientals and the wide selection of somniferums that keep reseeding (with a little help), and with some luck I can get germination and survival of the few Agremone platyceras (Prickly Poppy). The rest will depend on what I can get from NARGS, and maybe Plant World in England. I've given up on Meconopsis too. I love them, but never have had any success growing them from seed, and 8 bucks a plant for one seasons enjoyment is too spendy. Can't wait for the weather to turn so I can get back to gardening. The pic is a group that keeps coming up year after year, each time a little different.
edited to correct spelling of a-R-gemone. I seem to always mix the two letters up.

This message was edited Dec 30, 2006 9:47 AM

Balvenie, thanks for the kind words about the painting, it is one I painted in acrylic on canvas. People sometimes think they have to have a big wall for a big painting, but that is not necessarily the case. We have hung large paintings on small walls and it can make a powerful atmosphere for a room that way. Depends on what you want.

I should think you would have far more success with Meconopsis in Marysville than I have over here. I have been wishing I had gotten interested in those poppies when I still lived on Whidbey Island, the odds would have been better. Or maybe not...

I have not tried the prickly poppy, what zones are good for it? I let my soms run out last year and think I will get them going again this year, your pic is a teaser for that. They are such awesome flowers.

And pardon my ignorance, but what is NARGS?

North American Rock Garden Society. Every year they put out an awesome seed list, with over 4,500 varieties this year.

I've planted dozens of packs of various Meconopsis seed and just a whole bunch of nursery plants over the past 5 years and still have not had any success. Who knows, maybe someday one will grow by accident. The Prickly Poppy, Argemone platyceras, is from Mexico and would do better in a warmer clime.Here it grows to about 8" or 9" instead of the 'usual' 36".

I understand the wall sizing and agree. Our particular "problem" is that I already have practically all of the wall area covered with photos,paintings and drawings. DW has said I can't build anymore walls. lol That painting takes my breath away. You are a fantastic artist.

Good heavens! I went and looked at NARGS seedlist and it is stunning. I had no idea.

When my dh and I got married we each had an extensive art collection already, so we immediately had no wall space. Which has not stopped us from acquiring more artwork either. So we have a dry warm storage area, and every once in awhile one of us starts rehanging the house. The other jumps in and soon we have different artwork on display. It is a lot of fun, and by moving it around like that, we see it with fresh eyes most of the time.

Balvenie, do you collect art, create your own, or both?

Both ! Although I 'create', I hesitate to call it "art". I have some friends who are excellent artists and I have several of their pieces, as well as some lovely prints. I like your idea of rehanging and think it would work for some of the smaller ones. The big space-takers are the four pastels.They are 45" square, mounted on Masonite, with tempered glass and weigh a ton.

Glad you found the NARGS site. It is cool organization.

Best of everything for a great New Year for you and yours.

Great painting. Bet it makes a big statement on your wall. We were in New Orleans just 2 mos. before Katrina hit. Went into an art gallery down in the Quarter and saw some beautiful paintings of poppies. I was all set to buy one, but the sales people just ignored my hus. and I and went on talking. We were in there about 10 mins. and no one said a word to us. We just walked out. Now I wish i had said something and bought one of the paintings. You are a really good artist.

I took a look at my big garden yesterday and saw 3 poppies already coming up. They are from seeds I buy off the seed rack in the spring at Wally world. Had some beautiful pale pink ones and a red color. Just let them go to seed. What the gold finches don't eat, comes up.

If you ever have any seeds I would like some of them. Never tried any of the other poppies. I am somewhat limited in my gardening pursuits because I am older and have vision problems.

Have a Happy New Year. LIZ

LC2, glad you like my painting, but I don't own that one anymore, they tend to find homes and move out the door. It was in the Yellowstone Art Museum for their winter show that year.

If you walked into our gallery we would not ignore you! We are not pushy, we just like to have fun with our clientele, many of whom end up being personal friends also. Quite enjoyable that way.

I envy the fact you have poppies coming up already, it is cold and a long way off here. The goldfinches here concentrate on my sunflowers. I have quite a large migratory flock that targets my garden now, which I like.

I finally figured out how to save some seeds from my shirley poppies last summer. It is so windy here if you let them fully ripen they have all blown away before you can harvest them. I resorted to collecting them just slightly green before the slits in the caps had sent them flying all over. I have not tested germination yet, but I think they will grow well as they were not all that green. If you want some, dmail me. The seeds I saved were from my favorite poppy garden, the big round one. Those mostly have picotee edges or have white centers blending out to brightly colored edges.

I have several packets of seeds ... bought a 12 combo pack ... but the ones that I am most anxious to see are the Danish Flag ones.

W J

mulchmania, great painting of the poppy. I have over the years collected 3 poppy paintings, One is a painting by a local artist and 2 are ones I bought in Spokane at an arts & Crafts fair. I have grown poppies over the years, but don;t have any looking like your photo of the purplish ones. I have grown Hungarian Blue that is really purple. I love yours, my favorite color.

balvenie that is a lovely field of poppies.

I will be planting poppy seed outside when there is less snow. There is 12 to 14 inches of snow on the ground now, plus more besides the paths where piled from clearing.

Before it clouded over a while ago, the temp. was 10 degrees, but now has risen to 16, which is cold enough, but thankfully no wind.

Donna

Donna, thanks, I am glad you love poppies and paintings of poppies too. I paint all sorts of flowers but poppies are by far my favorite. I hope to grow more than ever this next year, and last year will be hard to beat!

Here is a smaller painting I did, it is only about 30" wide by 21" high, called Harmony.

Another beautiful poppy painting. Poppies are also my favorite painting and photo subjects, as well as garden addition, of course. That field of poppies is beautiful. Wish it was mine Donna, but I can't claim ownership. 'Mulchie', what do you do with all those gorgeous poppies ? Cut flowers ? Seed ? Year before last I had quite a few single and double white somniferums but either lost the seeds or they failed to repeat this past season. I was hoping to have a large stand of the whites and the deep purples together. Might still be able to do it this year.

The whites were so pristine. Hope I can get them established again.

Balvenie, I just go out at dawn every morning and roam around in my gardens photographing poppies until the light moves past that glorious early a.m. look.

I have no luck at all with cut flowers, can't seem to get the stems singed or whatever correctly. Seeds I only managed to figure out how to collect this past summer with our awful winds. I have relied on self seeding in my permanent mulch system.

But I have over 40,000 flower photos in my archives and a vast number of them are poppies. The gardens are laid out and planted specifically for the light I like at dawn. The big round garden is my favorite because it has the best selection of shirleys in it and the ring shaped rows allow me all different angles on the flowers when shooting.

I had some white soms, may still have an occasional one out there, and they are pristine. But I like the petal shapes and shadows in the white shirleys better for my artwork so I cleared most of the white soms out. They would look lovely with your purples though.

Here are a couple of pink ones I photographed.

Those fringed pink ones are gorgeous.

It appears you have a goodly area in which to garden. What a delight walking through those flowers in the morning must be. The frilled pink is beautiful. Could we see more of your garden pictures ?

edited to add that the paintings in your diary are awesome.

This message was edited Jan 1, 2007 10:59 AM

Balvenie, uhoh, that could fall in the be-careful-what-you-pray-for category, with as many photos as I have! Sometimes when I want to get ready to paint, I sit down at the computer and run a slideshow of several hundred flower shots. Puts me right back in the garden even if it is January, cold and blowing.

Here are a few, I promise to be extremely limited in this.

Another.

Another. I occasionally get these really wild fringed ones.

And another. I will find a few shirleys later.

They are beautiful ! This little critter popped up out of nowhere last year. First time I'd seen her, odd but nice.

Oooo she is a pretty one!

Hi mulchmania
Just following you arround.

They have a very short life here in west texas but I have gathered a lot of different ones and will see what if any make it. I know some have grown here before. My neighbor had some 2 years ago. It gets very hot here fast once spring arrives but the poppies seem to grow and bloom fast enough to make it before the sun crisps them. LOL

Tammie

Tammie, I am also a LhasaLover. mine is 7 years now. She is getting very bored with all the deep snow and not being able to get outside and run around. I take to be trimmed about every 6 weeks. Here is a picture ( which has nothing to do with poppies).

Donna

poppies, puppies, only 1 letter different!

The NARGS seed catalog is out, and they have "Lauren's Grape" -- originated in Lauren Springer's garden right here in Colorado. I plan to get some.

And Lauren's Grape is what sort of poppy?

I think I am going to start a bunch more Icelands this year. I got some established last year, but not as many as I want. I got some more seeds in the mail yesterday. I love all these innocent looking little packets of things that surely will overwhelm me come spring...

I plan to order Flemish Antique poppy seed from T & M. Haven't grown those before. Also J L Hudson has a good selection of papaver and I plan to order (soon) P. nudicaule San Remo. I will I'm pretty sure have some Iceland poppies, volunteer along the paths in my woodland garden area, if the darn bunnies don't eat them all.

Donna

Mulchie, Lauren's Grape is a somniferum. Patty's Plum is the Oriental equivalent. I think there are some references to them on the PF too. This may not be Lauren's Grape, but it is similar.

Well, I can see why someone might like to grow it!

This was labeled as Patty's Plum, and we all know how accurate nursery labels are. lol

the "Lauren's Grape" is from P. somniferum, according to L. Springer where she mentions it in her essay on poppies.

Greenjay, please tell me more about the Springer essay, I'm not familiar with it.

The book is "Passionate Gardening: Good advice for challenging climates", by Lauren Springer & Rob Proctor (2000). The essay is the one where she discusses the different kinds of poppies she has grown and the trials she went through selecting a nice shade of purple in her P. somniferum. There are many fine essays in this book, and I keep it by the bedside all winter long so i can at least console myself that other people are challenged by this high and dry environment and it is still possible to create something wonderful!

Thank you, I'll see if it is available.

I know Amazon has it -- that is where I got my copy. Your local library may also have it.

Mulch - Do you ever paint double poppies or peony poppies? I am in awe, your paintings are amazingly beautiful and detailed. I love the ones with the black backgrounds they almost look like a photo.

This is a painting by the late John Matassa that currently resides in my guest bathroom. The painting is 24" x 24" and the bathroom is small. I hung it in there only becuse it matched the current decor but it fills up the wall and looks great.

-Kim

Hi Bluekat, that painting has some really enjoyable colors in it, you must enjoy living with it.

I am glad you like my paintings, I have a passion both for poppies and painting. I paint double poppies from time to time but have not happened to paint a peony poppy at the moment. Doesn't mean I won't, I just haven't yet. I have not planted as many of those as other kinds, but each year things change.

Here is a white shirley with water drops I painted 56" x 44" in acrylic.

Hello:I need advice.The iceland poppies bloom the first or second year in my zone#5 ? I had good success, this past summer with my poppies.I direct sowed my poppy seeds in the late fall.
Here is a photo of Burgundy Frills poppy.

It might depend on how you start them. Here in zone 4b I can get first year blooms if I start them ahead in the greenhouse. Nice pic!