Poppy time!

About every other year I scatter poppy seeds around in the Fall. I'm sure glad I did it this last Fall. You reap what you sow.

-Ron-

Beautiful, Ron. I do that too:-)

Don't you just love those! I started California Poppies last year, and even though we had some extremely cold weather (near zero) for about a week this last winter, they re-seeded. I see them coming up in some of the most bizarre places, even!

CA poppies are perennials so you can cut them back after they go to seed and they will come back to bloom again. They do not live a real long time, sorta like penstemons, but they will reseed themselves. Lots of colors available.

Mine bloomed all summer for me last year.

We had our slopes hydroseeded with wildflowers so we could move in last year (erosion control). We had a pretty good show on one slope, but the other not so much. This year, the poppies on the 'other' slope came back with a vengeance -- huge plants and loads of flowers. Glad we have them while our new plants are getting established. They look very pretty amongst the salvias. Will try to get a picture while they're open.

In Davis, CA they are everywhere, including what looks to be some tuffed poppies too. Here is a picture from around the corner of my new place. This is part of a traffic median.

Beautiful pic!

Thanks Ron and gacarnegie for posting those phots of California poppies. I've always loved them.

They are so beautiful! Here is a shot in my back yard last year. This year I had to use Round up on the crab grass and the poppies got pulled, but I scatter their seed elsewhere so I still have them this year in a different place. They are just starting to bloom now so I'll get a recent picture.

I'm so jealous! All I have blooming for me right now are daffodils, tulips & anenomes. Soon....... very soon...... I must be patient.

Well, gee, Clare and gacarnegie, I THOUGHT I had some great poppies until I saw those pictures! Our traffic medians should look like that here.

When is the best time to collect seeds?

Kaperc, I'm sure your poppies are lovely! How could they not be? The best time to collect seeds is when the pod is brown and dried and preferably before they split open! LOL! I think you can cut the pods off a little early and put them in a brown paper bag to dry out and then collect the seed.

Thanks, Clare. I wondered how one knew just when to collect them. Some of them are so big, I'm going to have to cut them down so they don't interfere with plants nearby.

I promised you guys poppy pictures, and then I forgot to post them!

A picture without my neighbor's house and car would be better:

I love poppies! The garden center where I work just got in some "fancy" colored ones, in cream, and a blood-orange. They're spectacular! I've already picked up two of them, and once I get my bed cleaned out, I'm getting more.

Lori