Poppies

Hey,

anyone in favor of a "poppies" forum?

We have peppers and peonies, but no poppies.

Just a suggestion.

Thanks
W Jones

I would like VERY MUCH a poppy forum!

Just a reminder of the fairy-like beauty of poppies in the hope to seduce others to vote for it!

okay,

there's one!

just give a yeah if you are interested.

Thanks
W Jones

I too would like a poppy forum. I grow several kinds of poppies and would like to learn more. Donna

With about 25 genera and approximately 200 species, there's a lot more to this flower than is commonly known.

Also, the poppy has occupied a large part of the human heart as evidenced by its place in art history (see my beginning notes in my thread: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/566811/ , the Feb 7, 2006 post entitled "ART HISTORY" and scroll down to POPPIES).

A passion for poppies is a natural for anyone smitten with morning glories, since these two flowers can often share the same spot, with some annual poppies like P. rhoeas being sown about 4 - 6 weeks before the last spring frost date and some annual morning glories being sown a couple of weeks later a little behind where you sowed the poppies.

I would love a poppy forum, too.

this image is labeled in my files:
HuysumJanvan_Flowers_cgfa_1722
from: http://www.artcyclopedia.com/
Where it says "enter artist's name", type in Jan van Huysum and hit enter
Scroll down to "Pictures from Image Archives" and click on "Jan van Huysum at CGFA"

I would love a poppy forum! Last year was my first to attempt to grow them and I was amazed and charmed at my success. I want more and more!

Count me in -- I just posted to another forum that I have been trying to get (annual) poppies to grow here off and on for over 20 years,,,,but when I thought about it, it's been for over 25 years! Hate to sound so pathetic. LOL! THIS year is the year.

To start things off, I was wondering if you all put anything in the poppies' place after they bloom. Maybe something quick like Zinnias? Or maybe you could tell me what you plant near them so that in Aug there is something blooming in their spot. Maybe with dahlias?

I realize you all have lots and lots of different kinds of poppies, but I just want the regular somniferum/corn/shirley/California ones.

Suzy

One of the most famous cottage gardens of all time was memorialized in the diary of that garden's maker as well as in the watercolors, pastels and oils of her friend, the American impressionist, Childe Hassam, who illustrated it. Both her book and many of his works are free online in digital form.

I think this makes wonderful winter reading for the dreamers and schemers among us, and after you peruse a bit, ya gotta ask yourself what would her garden have been without poppies?

Celia Thaxter's book, An Island Garden is here:

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/thaxter/garden/garden.html

the best scan I can find of her in her garden by Childe Hassam with those poppies in the foreground and the Atlantic ocean in the background is here:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/98/Celia_Thaxter_in_Her_Garden.jpg
(labeled in my files: HassamChilde_CeliaThaxterinherGarden_Wikipedia_1892

More of Childe Hassam's paintings are at: www.artcyclopedia.com
However, I had to go to www.google.com to find the scan I've put here

Suzy, yes - here in zone 7, I used to follow poppies in July with direct-sown cosmos and zinnias when we had more sun. I don't know if your season is long enough for that. If you could set aside, say, 10' x 10' (or 5' x 5') as a nursery, then you could sow short-season annual flowers like cosmos around May 15 or June 1 and transplant those to follow your poppies early in July. Perhaps looking at the various lengths of time from sowing to flowering, you can find more candidates for that. Stokes Seed catalog is very good with germinating and cultural information and give number of days or weeks from sowing to flowering - http://www.stokeseeds.com/cgi-bin/StokesSeeds.storefront However, their online catalog is devoid of the information their print catalog has)

In my own garden next year, I'm going to try P. rhoeas 'Angel's Choir' from Weezingreens in front of asparagus along a path with EmmaGrace's Yojiro morning glories towering behind. In past summers, the asparagus has kept burgeoning all summer until it covered where the poppies were earlier. Will also try to sneak in nasturtiums on the front edge.

The edges of beds - especially the edges in back - are great places to smuggle in diminutive or transitory treasures like poppies not in the plan. Again, as the poppies die back, dahlias (many from Daisyruffles) inside the bed burgeon out, so that the disappearance of the poppies doesn't show. Smaller, single poppies do better here than larger, double ones - I think because of increasing shade from a neighbor's mulberry. P. rhoeas 'Fairy Wings' might work here (and possibly the California poppy, Eschscholtzia sp.), but if you have lots of sun, I'd experiment with as many varieties of poppy as possible - lucky you with enough sun for those gorgeous lettuce poppies (the peony and/or opium poppies).

We've lined both sides of a tiny path with Critterologist's alpine strawberries. I'd love to grow a larger, fancier poppy behind them - received seed of a "Fringed" poppy (P. lacianatum?) from Sheran's swap. Will have some pots of pineapple sage and African Blue Basil ready to pop in at mid-July. Some cuttings of that sage are rooting indoors now, and I'm hoping there's some viable seed in those pods I saved from the basil. Lemon grass makes a nice counterpoint of fountaining blades to the berries and sages.

I lined another path last summer with a black-leaved coral bell and will be experimenting with sowing the dwarf alpine poppy (fragrant!) in sunset shades among it to see if the heuchera can put up with this companion. And, if I can find P. atlanticum, I'd love to mix that one in too - tiny, bright orange but very prolific flowers will wake up those other paler sunset colors.

Wherever you grow morning glories, I would definitely sow poppies earlier. Iceland poppies have done okay for us in partial shade, so am hoping to get them to flower behind hedges of rue and hyssop under a morning glory arbor along another path, with angelonia and Salvia 'Purple Majesty' (also rooting indoors now) following behind. Ipomoea purpurea varieties seem more shade tolerant than others - some cuttings of I. pur. 'Double Blackie' are also rooting indoors. Ansonfan's moonflowers actually bloomed there, too. There's only about 5 or 6 hours of sun there.

And then - perennial poppies - we grow a double orange Papaver orientale that came over the back garden fence from a neighbor. When it goes dormant in summer, aster 'Purple Dome' takes over its spot and flowers in September. The poppy comes back fine every spring none the worse for crowding.

The commercial source of seed that I have found to give the most seed for your money is http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net/SeedlistO-PA.htm That catalog is a great reference - see what it says about which poppies are annual, biennial or perennial when planning what to plant with what. They have more variety than most.

But, I think for the ultimate in expanding the variety of poppies to grow, joining seed, plant and/or horticultural societies is a good idea. Am running out of steam right now, so will post again with what I can find. Off the top of my head, the following come to mind:

http://www.nargs.org/index.html
http://www.seedsavers.org/membership.asp


As you can see, my garden has a lot for which to thank many DG folks. Hope this helps -
karen

Yes, I'd like a Poppy forum.

I am looking for more information on different types of poppies. I think a forum woud be great... one where people post lots of pictures and tell what conditions theirs grow best in. I realized just last spring that we can grow poppies here. Their growing season is ended in late spring due to the rapid rise in temperatures but a neighbor had a 30 ft flower bed in the front filled with peach colored poppies last spring. They were 2 to 3 ft high. I did not know what they were and finally went over to look. I was amazed at how fast they grew there. I did collect some seeds and hope to have them grow this spring. I am looking for different seeds so I can try to grow a mixed bed.

Tammie

Hey, thanks for the tip on sowing poppies with morning glories! I'll have to try that too... still have a stash of poppy seeds in the fridge, too!

This was cross-posted over in the new cottage gardens forum, so I'll just repeat my response here.

"I'd love to see more discussion on poppies -- right here on the new cottage gardening forum! I'm not a big fan of the wild proliferation of forums that's been going on lately... I miss a lot if I have to click on 50 different forums, and in particular I miss out on learning about something I don't already grow... I probably wouldn't drop in on a "poppies only" forum, but with photos and information right here I'd probably get hooked on them quickly enough.

Dave has said (paraphrasing here) that new forums are appropriate when the topic can't be reasonably included in an existing forum, or when discussion of one topic is overwhelming other topics in that forum. I hate to dampen anyone's enthusiasm, but I think it's more than a question of whether a particular type of plant is special or varied enough to "deserve" its own forum.

One the other hand, I think the new cottage gardening forum is already generating a lot of interest and discussion that will continue through the winter months as we think up new combinations etc for our gardens!"

I would love to learn more about them ! I grew some annual poppies for the first time ( have tried for many years with no success) this past year and fell in love. Never want to be without them again !

Here is a picture of one of my Oriental poppy clumps.

I did not have very good luck with my annual poppies last spring, don't see how I could have planted the seed too early, but that is all I can think of.

now I HAVE to have some of those !!!! When do we plant them in the south? Do we sow seeds like you do for annual poppies, or do you buy plants?????? ( see, I said I wanted to learn more !!!)

You can grow oriental poppies from seed, but they don't very often come true from seed. It is more satisfactory to buy plants. I really like oriental poppies but one does have to remember that after blooming they go dormant for rest of summer and need to have other plants growing nearby to cover the blank left after they finish blooming. I would think that in a warmer climate they should be planted late fall or early spring.

Donna

I have found my volunteer babies (peach coloured) to be the same colour as the mom. I've not tried any from the red/orange flowered plant. As they grow in the wild quite easily, I would think they would volunteer true from seed. I remember learning "In Flander's Fields the poppies grow, between the crosses, row on row... and the pictures of acres of poppies growing wild in France. JMHO - and ramblings. :)

The leaves do die after blooming but then the pods take awhile to dry. I harvest the seeds and soon new leaves start up from the roots and I have plants that are abt a foot high by the time a hard frost hits them - light frosts don't faze them at all.

Is there a specific name for the oriental poppies? I would love to find some seeds. Even if they dont produce true, I bet they would be beautiful.

Tammie

The Oriental poppy in the picture I posted is Pink Ruffles. I have several, my favorite is probably the one called Watermelon, very aptly named. Patty's Plum is nice but here needs some shade as fades badly in full sun.

Donna

Donna, they are gorgeous! I haven't seen an oriental I don't like. Click on Plant Files, type oriental poppy in the common name box and you will find 42 matches. Enjoy! :)

Tammie, I am such a dummy! Would you like me to send you seed from both mine? They are fresh from this summer. Send me a dmail with your info or are you in the exchange?

I love poppies

Steph, I love the mix of colors you have. I remember seeing poppies in the flowerbeds at the Vons I used to shop in Los Angeles.. Glendale.

I am in West Texas now.

Tammie

All,

Thanks for helping get this thread on poppies started. Hopefully an admin will see that the interested is large enough to have a forum dedicated to it.

I hear it takes a few weeks to months, but - it's outta our hands, and in those of DG admin :)

By the way, and for what it's worth - here in 7b, we have two options for planting seasons - mid fall, and early spring (after frost).

I was going to do mid fall, but missed the window - and it's gonna freeze tonight anyway, so mine are in the fridge and I am going to sow late February. I had to get the rabbit fence up anyway, and didn't get that up til recently, so all is well there. (they ate my lettuce/cabbage phase seedlings last year).

W J
Frisco, Texas

steph_gem beautiful combination of colors ! Did you buy a mixed package of seeds like that or do your own? Do you know the name of that deep purple one? I would love to have a deep purple.

I absolutely adore poppies, so for that reason alone I would vote for a poppy forum. But there is another reason, hinted at here and there -- with so many genera and species of poppies, it is hard to get clear (and scientifically accurate) information about seed germination techniques, esp. for the more unusual varieties. As is already the case with the Lily forum, a poppy forum could be a place to discuss some hard-core technical information that would bore the snot out of everyone else.

Why couldn't that topic be handled as a thread on an existing forum, perhaps "Propagation" or "Cottage Gardening?"... People trying to grow poppies from seed can discuss away, and anyone who would be bored to tears by the topic can just skip the thread.

I don't want to be perceived as a wet blanket, but I just don't think that every kind of plant "needs" its own forum, and that has nothing to do with how much I like the plant or with my respect for the people proposing the new forum! There are some plants -- African Violets & Gesnariads, Orchids, etc -- that were probably rightly split away because they're very active topics that could dominate a "Houseplants" forum, for example. But DG just starts getting unwieldy (for me, anyway) as more and more "Specific Kinds of Plants" forums are added. I know I can simply choose not to watch or to participate in the new forums, but I also know I will miss a lot of valuable information that would have caught my eye in a more general-topic forum. I wish "Tropical Fruit" had stayed as part of "Edible Fruits and Nuts," and I hope "Gladiolus" and "Amaryllis" topics will stay within the "Bulbs" forum.

I hope it is OK to play devil's advocate or to cast a dissenting vote on these threads... I'm sure I will catch some flak for it, but even when I abstain from commenting by not posting a positive vote on a new forum thread, I get Dmail along the lines of, "Why can't you vote for my new forum? I'd vote for something that you wanted!" I think the question of new forums should be more than a plant popularity contest.

critter - very good point! Discussing germination techniques would be excellent under progation. I'm very curious if the orientals can be grown down south and how. I also agree that there are so many forums, I miss seeing some peeps I used to 'read' daily. I kinda think a poppy forum would have very little traffic and threads would get old, but then, what do I know? LOL

regarding "wet blanket"

I guess I can see where it would fit under a specific category - e.g. Propagation or Cottage, but I am quite the newbie, and have no idea what would fall under "cottage gardening" or not. I know what a poppy is, and what it looks like. That's why I got interested, and would have looked first.

Just my two cents worth.

W J

yes to the poppy forum.....

Yes, please I want a poppy forum! I love them and need help figuring out how to grow them and which ones can successfully grow in my area. Poppies can be a real challenge--for instance, ever try growing blue poppies? They exist, but are hard to grow successfully....

I have a question.....How do you get Oriental poppy seeds to come up? I was successful many years ago and still have a couple pink colors .

My Shirley poppies have volunteered in droves already this fall for next year's early bloomers. Poppies do not transplant well.

Indy, the only way I've ever gotten any type of poppy (oriental included) to germinate and grow for me was by winter sowing... The year I did it I had so many poppies coming out of my ears I didn't know what to do with all of them. :)

Diann

Ticker,

When did you sow - Nov, Dec? Temps? Freeze conditions?

Thanks
W Jones

I think I remembered to winter sow around the second week of February. Did the containers like you are supposed to and then put them out side on the east side of my house and let nature take its course. I think I saw poppy sprouts about mid March. If you haven't winter sowed before you really need to check out the winter sowing forum. You can get much better directions from those folks. :)

Diann

Diann,

Last year (not three weeks ago), I sowed in October/November. I am 7b, and have been told this is fine. However, Just like Daisys, the lettuce (or cabbage) phase of the poppy is like twinkies to bunnies. And I had ZERO yield. So, I put a fence in this season, but a little too late to get full germination, and I am fearful that if I sow now, I will not get the four weeks I need of growth before a freeze and the dormancy stage.

I, too will probably sow in Feb this year.

Thanks
Will

Yes, bunnies can be a problem. Sounds like you are direct sowing outside? I didn't do that, I winter sowed my poppies into containers and the poppies were probably four to five inches tall when I planted them. The orientals didn't bloom for me the first year (if I remember right), but I also winter sowed a little annual poppy called "White Linen," and it bloomed its little heart out for me that year and then reseeded for the next year and there is still some of it in spots. It was nice, this fall after everything had been toasted by the killer freeze, I went out and there was that little "White Linen" poppy smiling and blooming away. I got to get some more of that seed. I did direct sow some annual peony formed poppy and it's coming back in droves...

If the bunnies get too bad for you, you may have to put them into a bunny relocation program. :)

Diann

I have been so lucky and blessed by those in DG who have sent me seeds and cuttings and feel terrible I do not have anything in return yet. Well not much but I realized I do have something. I have some poppy seeds I gathered last summer from my neighbors garden. I don't know how good they will be to germinate... haven't tested them but would like to share a few. They grew 18 to 36 inches tall and were peach in color. They were in a very sunny place and in west Texas, were the first to bloom last year and gone by late spring/early summer.

The first 5 people who respond here on this thread and send me a D-mail with the address to send them will receive a small packet of these seeds. I don't have a lot but more than I should try planting in my small yard.

Happy Holidays everyone.

Tammie

This message was edited Nov 23, 2006 3:28 PM

I have two on order, waiting til mid week for them to arrive, I lov ethe color of the Papaver cummutatum Flanders
http://www.valueseeds.com/archive-6553.html
and the orange poppy http://www.valueseeds.com/item-2124.html although more muted that the flanders is still a nice spark of color.


I'd like some white ones tho to balance things out.

Since the order is for 2000 of the Flanders and 200 of the orange, I will have plenty to share if anyone would like either or both.