I direct sowed mine about 4 weeks ago in an area where I had spread some top soil over an existing bed. The temp was unusually high for March. They germinated in two weeks. Please don't give up. I used to direct sow them and had no germination because the soil was not raked clean. Now I have no problem at all as long as the soil is freshly raked. I don't want to WS them since I have a abundant collection of seeds and my garden is too stuffed to fit in small seedlings one spot at a time. I simply direct sow them so they'll grow at will. Good luck.

I wonder if the styrofoam makes them dry out faster? I did 4 large plastic cups and used a secon cup on top for the lid. I wanted to try them this year but 2 cups were too much work. Last year the coneflowers were one of the last to sprout for me. I just sowed some more 2 weeks ago. I was going to skip them this season cause I planted out a bunch of them. I am excited to see how they will look! Karen

I have grown Somniferum very successfully for many years, but all but one time they where direct seeded. They do best if they are scattered, very early in the spring, preferably on snow, or so I have been told and they did great that way for me. But... If you don't have 1000's of seeds, the chances they will land and grow where you want them too may be low. One thing I did though, which may work for you, is I put the seeds into ice cubes! I missed the snow that year, and thought up a compromise and it worked. I 1/2 filled an ice cube tray with water, put 3-5 seeds per cube in the water, let it freeze, added a bit more water, let it freeze (they tend to float, or at least mine did, this helped get them more into the ice). Then, I went outside, and put about 3 cubes in every spot that i wanted a poppy, and... it worked! There is also a topic started about pipe pots being good for transplanting poppies. perhaps try searching for "pipe pot". I think that the trick to moving poppies is getting them when they are small enough, and making sure you don't distrupt the tap root, which I really think this method could accomplish. I have transplanted very small poppies with great success. You just want to make sure you leave "tons" of dirt around them, use a full sized shovel even and pretend you are moving a 3 year old much larger plant! Perhaps you could do some "lasanga gardening" in spots where you want to plant the poppies. Prepare the soil early, lay down newspaper as a weed barrier, then good potting soil on top to plant the poppies in. Mark the spots so you know to leave them when you weed the rest of your beds. Or, you could sow them with the ice cube method, and put a marker in the ground to remind you of where they are and work with much more caution in those areas. perhaps don't even weed those areas until you know for sure that they are not your poppies!!

Yep, that's pretty much my method too Katob - no fannying about with lights and such - as long as seeds get good contact with a root supporting medium (aka soil), moisture and the required heat/light to germinate, they do very well without any special tending from us - a cursory glance around surely reveals the obvious - life is persistent, tenacious and adaptable. I also work on the theory that what I start with is how it is going to be so any plants which are too fragile, miffy, demanding or recalcitrant are in no way prepared to survive the hurly-burly and benign neglect of my gardening practices...and therefore not worth growing in the first place. The best time to do it is when you get around to it. Seeds will germinate when conditions are appropriate...so quite a few of your seeds will be up in 2-3 weeks - aquilegias for example, while other require various stratifying periods...which overwintering will usually satisfy. Worth checking a good germination database for those tricksy types which go into double dormancy or require alternating periods of warm/cool to kickstart the germination process. In general, I like to sow seeds at the time they would be ripe in real life (although primulas, for example, can be sown while still fresh, sticky and green and have not slipped into dormancy...but can also be sown much later in the year when they will need a cold stratifying to break dormancy). In general, sowing seeds you have saved (or swapped) yourself has been infinitely more reliable than buying from seed merchants - they are already adapted to local conditions and just enabling a space for germination should see the conditions met by the end of winter/start of spring/summer. Keep your seed pots as some take more than an entire season to germinate (clematis can take 3 years!) and some actually germinate beneath the soil (hypogeal germination) such as paeonies and will only show visible shoots in the second year. I have probably sown seeds in every month of the year - they keep their own calendar and know when it is appropriate to grow. Forcing them into growth with lights, chemicals, bottom heat and so forth simply upsets the cycle and they will need cossetting through the early period when they would have expected to be still safe in dormancy.