Three different locations now I've tried to get a bed of Oriental poppies started - bed, raised bed, and container. Nothing has the passionate color of a poppy and it HURTS not to have them. Please, somebody, tell me step by step how to have good results for next year.
Start in fall or spring? Full sun, right? Mix sand in the soil? Is there a certain cultivar that is most vigorous? (I love the scarlets, oranges, and carmines best.) How much water? I have probably over-watered. Do they need to be sprayed? Fertilized?
Thank you for any help. I will send pictures if successful.
Somebody please help me
When are you planting your seeds? My geography isn't very good but from what I can tell from the map you are as far South as I'm (Texas). You need to surface sow your seeds in the fall. They are a type of wildflower so they don't need much care. I plant them in the form of Seedballs because the seeds are really small and the seedballs protect them from the elements and birds.
thank you for the suggestions - I'll try again.
I think the first thing that comes to mind for me when I grow oriental poppies is to be aware that they go completely dormant in midsummer heat. They haven't died they have just disappeared until fall when they come up , thrive through the winter and then bloom in the spring.
I do a variation of winter sowing with t hem. I plant the seeds in a milk jug that has been cut in half and then place them outside on a table at the side of the house. This is in January mind you. About March the seeds have germinated and I bring them in the house and place them under a grow lite. Once they are big enough I prick them out and plant into individual pots. Of course then you go into the normal hardening off in the spring before you plant them into the garden. I have started and bloomed pizzicato , royal wedding , Beauty of Livermore , Queen Victoria and probably two or three other varities this way.
For more information on wintersowing you might want to look at the stick on the Winter sowing forum
Hope this helps.
John
You're exactly right - and that's what mine did, only I didn't realize it at the time. I thought they had died, and then I was surprised when they came back this fall.
They seem to be happy now. They are in a fairly good-sized square plastic pot. Do you think I should leave them there? I had thought about transplanting them to a sandier soil but now am not sure what to do.
Thank you for your help.
Papavar Orientalis is hard to transplant sucessfully.
I have only bought plants fron a nursery and had good luck with them.
I have not planted them in a container, just in the flower bed.
When they are dorment in the summer(all leaves turned crispy and brown) I take root cuttings. Some of these worked and some didn't.
I have never sewn seeds and my plants didnt self sow.
I love 'em.
I have transplanted quite a few over the years with complete success. I have perhaps 20 Royal Weddin out in my Nursery bed which were transplanted 3 or 4 weeks ago. They were started in the house under lights. Transplanted into two inch pots and left under lights for a couple of weeks then put out in my little cold frame. They were part of a larger group of which most were given away. These were left overs that went through the summer in the cold frame with almost no water. I discovered them in the cold frame as they were breaking dormancy and they are doing fine even though during the summer they suffered from neglect.
All of them are really beautiful.
John
OHHHH John I am so jealous of your ability to grow from seeds.
Royal wedding is a favorite of mine too.
I just dont have the room to have growlights and any sort of greenhouse set up, but your Royal wedding reminds me of a newly formed sun area where I took down a tree and have to move some shade loving hucheras and BigDaddy Hostas, also a LigulariaDesdimona.
I'll put poppies in that spot.
John, thanks so much for sharing your method! I've tried Oriental poppies from seed several times with no luck- your way sounds very doable for me. The plants are so darn expensive, or rather I'm so cheap, I've contented myself with annual poppies. But I'm still longing to see poppy blooms with my peonies and iris in May!
Neal
GE 1836 - those are gorgeous! That's what I want. I gotta have them.
Mine revived in the fall and look fine now, but soon it will freeze. I can't decide whether to leave them in the large plastic container they're in, or try to transplant them to a bed. I've heard they don't like to be transplanted, but in the middle of the summer they didn't seem very happy in the container. What doyou think?
What you see now of the re-emerging Orientals is called the crown( one of a few plant terms I know, so glad to use it here )
I have never transplanted poppies at this time of year for the same reasons you have heard. I hope someone else has better advise. I have not seen OP's planted in containers and am only now finding out more about Container gardening.
I have never had any luck with Nastuerteums, figured out the container soil gets too hot for the roots.
I will be cureous to see if anyone transplants now as I have a seedling from this spring purchase.
Perhaps I will wait to see how they do in the container in the spring.
Do you put sand in your soil for planting Oriental poppies? I have some sand on hand and could try to fix them a real nice place next year.
About the nasturtiums: I always loved them from my childhood in Minnesota, where they bloomed brilliantly in the short, cool summers with long daylight hours. I never wanted to try them here in Middle Tennessee because of the heat, but this year someone gave me some already planted in a (large) container with coleus. They did better than I expected. They quit blooming but the pretty round leaves spread out into a nice bright green display.
But I agree with you that excessive heat is often a problem with containers. I have used the "earth box" containers, the ones with watering tubes, for several different things - tomatoes, lisianthus, and impatiens. The tomatoes and lisianthus flourished . . . up to a point, and then seemed to wither and quit blooming, although there were no insects or blights on them. I think they just got too hot. But the impatiens apparently can tolerate heat and they kept on blooming. (Impatiens can tolerate just about everything, I guess - I once had impatiens in a pot near a window in Arctic Alaska where there was only twilight for three months, and they survived.)
Sorry to ramble on - gardening is so interesting!
Here in nEW York State the impatiens are slow growers until auguas when the worst heat is over then in September they really come on.
I have clay soil here and have mulched heavily to keep out weeds.
All gardens are new so when I put a new plant in the ground I plop some compost ontop of the mulch ,then dig the hole mixing in fime mulch and compost. I have new poppy plants from Bluestone,barely three leaves when they came.
They were slow to grow all summer but one or two managed a bloom in August. Late to mid May is bloomtime for Orientals here.They completed their cyle and have put up small crowns for winter.They are so hard to get established.
I'll send pics.
This is a pic of the same two plants the one on the left was taken in June a month after I planted them, the right one is how they look now, not much change but I'm encouraged for first year plants.
Originally I had six in a collection .One died and I transplanted this one, you can see its much smaller that the other ones.
Whatever it takes I'm gonna do it - there is just nothing to match that gorgeous, glowing, crepe-paper color!
Thank you very much for the information, which saves me a lot of trial and error.
I will replace the poppy that died.
I'll buy Royal wedding from Garden crossings in the spring.
The Orientals mostly need a ell drained soil.
Have fun.