Zone 6 Oriental Poppy start

I have listened to everyonesadvise about seed starting Oriental poppies and here is what I did to start seeds of four varities,
Coral Reef from Johnaas
Fancy Feathers One stop poppy shop
Royal Wedding One SPS
Princess Victoria Louise from DGer
I filled 3inch pooop pots with starting soil.
Put them in a low profile plastic storage box,
Watered the filled PP's and let stand over night for good absorb.
Plant three or four seeds per PP and gently pressed in to the soil.
Put them on shelves in the garage for a cold period, we dont start annuals here until mid April,night freezes last until mid May.
I have then covered loosly with a black plastic bag.
I'll check in three weeks to see whats going on and bring inside then for more light.
As you can see I have high hopes and in reality if only one plant makes it to the ground in May I'll be happy.
I'll cut the bottoms out of the PP's befor putting in the garden.
If anyone wants to correct my method I would be most greatfull, Its the first time I have done OP 's

Any peek-a-boos yet?

I'm a bit worried.
They have been in the garage for 10 days and are very wet still.Frozen at times.
I'll bring them into the house end of March (next week) and see if warmth will encourage them.
They might not make it. I'm prepared for a failure.
Sniff Sniff

I will be bringing the poppy poop pots in the house next week.That will make three weeks in the cold and wet - maybe damp.
There is no sign of a sprout but I do think some of the seeds have swelled.
I have to look thru a magnifying glass to see anything.

I brought the poppies into the house for warmth on advise of another DG'er

I brought the frozen Orientals into the house two days ago and there are thre of the four varieties that have germinated.
I'm so psyched.
Princess Victoria Louise and
Royal Wedding and Corel Reef are showing shoots, like human hairs but shoots.
I'll photo when they are bigger.

Just barely visible.
Victoria Louise is a real shooter, no wonder the seeds were cheaper than other varieties.
Jonas's Corel Reef's are starting too and Royal Wedding from OneStopPoppyShop.
Heres a pic the teeeeny shoots are marked in red on the Royal Wedding Victoria Louise doesnt need a marker.

victoria Louise

congratulations ge hooray for you

Thanks for the support Timein abottle.
I realize how obcessive I am, cant stop looking at the pots to see if anymore germinated.
Are you familliar with the habits of any of the varieties?
I'm thinking "Princess Victoria Louise" is a spreader, its so vigerous from the start.

I have had coral reef for several years and it is beautiful . Princess victoria Louise will be bloom for the first time in my garden th is year ( I hope). I do not keep labels on anything so I am not sure which is which. We had Tree trimers in last week to cut down a 50 year old silver maple. Since they couldnt get the bucket truck into our back yard they had to drop the branches wherever they fell. This included my flower beds. They took up some landscape timbers when preparing to work in the back yard and dumped them on the flower be where my newest poppies were. So we shall see.

How perfectly awfull.
We have good tree people here, they managed to cut down a dead spruce w/out much damage.
Perens are hardy, they mey return.

Good thing I live w/ DD .
She stopped me from transplanting Princess VicLouise too soon.
There are 7 poop pots full so they will need thinning anyway but I'll wait for the second set of leaves, like DD said.

Now you know about poppies. The question now is what are you going to do with all the transplants.

Maybe Daisy will help you pot those babies up.

Nice to have a dog to keep the bags from blowing away.
I'm not positive ALL the poppies will survive.
There might be waste plants of the Princes Victoria Louise. Those pots have dozens of seedlings.
There are only three or four seedlings in the other varieties and Fancy Feathers has one plant out of five pots that shows any sign of life.
Your hepl has been great keep watching to see where this sowing method goes.
I also found sowing directions for direct sowing for Orientals.
This method worked for me because I didnt have a place for the plants.
I just put down a Lazagna bed last week and by the end of April I will be able to transplant.
DD will let me know if its time,she saved me from repotting the PVL 's too soon, she says "second set of leaves"
I decided not to move the littleones.
We have a lot of garden space here all of it is under way and I didnt have room for poppies so we made the new bed which also has room for DD's summer vedgs she loves.
This is the new space for poppies and other perenns.

this is where the poppies will go, marked with stakes.

latest pics of sprouts.
Started Mar21 when I brought them into the house
April 1
Princess Vic.Louise

and Royal wedding

I'll be watching to see how yours do! I got Victoria Louise and Royal Wedding from One Stop Poppy Shoppe, too, among others. I decided to direct sow them outside, but now I can't tell which are the new colors, and which are the old ones that have been there for years. Guess I'll know when they bloom.

Angie

I cant wait for two years to see the blooms, so I bought Royal Wedding on sale.
I also bought Prince of Orange
Queen Alexandra
and another cherry red on a co-op.
The seedlings are doing OK .

I started some poppies, with less success. I have a couple of hairs on one. When I am done planting roses, I will try direct sewing a couple of seeds. Hope I am not too late. I got a bit carried away with seeds this year. Last year, I only started tomatoes and sunflowers. Much easier to start than poppies.

Just so you know.
I am not thrilled with the OP's I started.
They germinated fine and are comming along great,but I'm of an age where to wait five years to see a decent plant is not on my page. I have been buying plants to cut down on the bloom delay.
I did plant a mix last year and had a bloom on 2 of the 6.
One of the plants isnt doing well "corel reef" I think its shrivling up after 1 year in the ground.
I wont try seeds again for any perennial ,it just isnt worth the time. I applaud those who get a kick out of watching seeds do their thing.

only annual poppies bloom the first year, so I hope this doesnt upset you to much but you
will have to wait till next may to see them bloom mine are in their second year and will bloom next month I have about 50 new seedling that I started in january and even those will not bloom this year

I re-read my post and realized it sounded like i was talking about the same variety. The mix I bought was OP's
The Corel Reef is really looking bad.The others look great ,this will be their second year.
The annuals I direct sowed in December are coming up except for Island mhons and Shirly doubles.
Maybe they are just late germinaters.

mine looked pretty bad to at first since we had such a cold winter and I lost a few so now I dont know which color survived oh well after they bloom I will had the colors that are missing

Thanks for posting your progress. Now I know how I should have started my poppy seeds. I have some seeds left, If at first you don't succeed....

here is a bunch of poppies started last year this spring they looked really bad but now they are looking really good and should bloom by the end of june

nice

thank you I have three bunches like that in different locaitons and I have about 30 more plants growing inside that will go in different locations in a couple of weeks

I also bought poppies from the KoiGardens perennial co-op.
I also have some survivors from 2 years ago that will bloom well this year.I'll just keep adding plants when they go on sale at nurseries,its easier.

I do that also but I always add seeds and use a plastic bell to keep the birds from eating them all, I actually did ok with the ones I started inside ratio is very small maybe 10 per cent grew and will be planted I had almost 100 percent germination but poppies are so hard to grow from seed indoors since they dont like to be moved will do it differently next year

I'm not staking much hope in my seed plants.
Thats why I bought established plants from growers.
Like I said somewhere else, I wont do it again. Seed starting is just not for me. I love everyones efforts though.

if the inside thing doesnt work just get the plastic bells they are like a dollar each it is the simple and easy way to grow them for the novice grower,

I winter sowed Coral Reef and Victoria Louise in a disposable aluminum cake pan with plastic lid and they pretty much all germinated. They are now in their new bed. Only one has not made it yet. I understand they need to be moved from the seed starting environment/peat pots as soon as they have two leaves. I moved mine much later than that though.

I think the new home must have very fluffy soil for them to survive.

Teresa

poppies can grow in sand that is their natural invironment and they dont need to be watered they will get yellow leaves in july and august I just take off what is dead and then when the rain starts again in the fall they green up and get big again and then they are ready for winter

Yep!!! thats been my experience.
They winter over looking like a green plant when everyother pernnial is no where to be seen.

A report on my seedlings.
NONE of them survived except Victoria Louise which I suspect will be a weed its so prolific.

I have a few of all I seeded and now some are making buds cant wait to see the color of the blooms since by now I have no idea which is which but the foliage is all different so I know that I have many different kinds

Thats the delima Im in.
Bought several collections at different garden centers and now I have no ID's