how to harvest poppy seeds?

I bought three beautiful heirloom poppys from the nursery and they have stopped blooming. This is such a beautiful plant and I would love to have them around next year. I live in California. Does anyone know if I should cut back the plant? How would I harvest the seeds? What would be thebest procedure? I am a new and delighted first time gardener. PWettig

wait for the seedspods to mature and dry. you can then simply pour the seeds out the top of the pod. These are papaver not escholzia (sp?) right?

It takes a while for the seed heads to dry. Leave them on the plant until they turn brown. It makes for a little garden interest too while they are drying. After you shake out the seeds you can them and use in floral arrangements too.

And if they are Eschscholzia, a lot of them are perennials so they may come back for you without having to do anything. And they may not reallly be done blooming, mine bloom on and off most of the year. I never cut mine back. I've never collected seeds from mine so unfortunately I can't give you any tips on that.

Eschscholzia is difficult to collect because the time that the seed pod ripens to the time that it sort of explodes is very short. I'm trying to devise some kind of system to catch the seeds of flowers that are difficult, maybe a peice of paper or something underneath the plant to catch the seeds that drop of fly. Any body have any ideas?

can you attach some lightweight fabric like organza or tulle around the pod with a rubberband or some tape so that when the pod explodes, the seeds will be contained?

Thank you for your replies. That's helpful. Could someone tell me the difference between eschscholzia and papaverales? My spelling may be off. pwettig

Here's the plantfile on the papver that you might have or something like it.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/54227/

here california poppy
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/74312/

Thank you wonderearth. My variety is a papver and that link helped alot.

covering a poppy seed head with a piece of panty hose and then using a twistie to tie it off, works.

That sounds about right. I have some little "frying pans" that I loved this year and want to do them again next year this sounds like it will work. Thanks. Anybody know about gilia seeds collecting?