Marcindy, Peter and Susan Schneider are two of the loveliest people you could hope to meet. You really should subscribe to his American Rose Rambler, an excellent newsletter! I think you'll really enjoy his sense of humor, too. You can find his contact information here on the Combined Rose List web site. The CRL is another invaluable rose reference and was the only method of finding roses prior to Help Me Find. I have used his editions (and the prior ones created by Bev Dobson, another lovely rose person!) to find old, rare and unusual roses for many years. I would love to visit their open house, too. It must be amazing! Good luck. Kim Here is a link that might be useful: Combined Rose List

Thanks, Michael. I have remembered that you've mentioned that before for sandy soils and have been thinking about adding it into those beds. I think I read that someone has been using "nitrogen-enriched" kitty litter with good success. Do you know a reason why that's not a good idea? It seems like it would be a source of cheap nitrogen, anyway. Rosefolly, as I've looked at the nutrient availability chart related to pH there's something else that happens with boron at high pH. I think I understand that at low pH plants uptake too much boron but at high pH boron become inaccessible so you get a deficiency. But I don't quite understand because at pH 9 and above it looks like it uptakes well again. Here's a link to one of those pH nutrient-availability charts. Thanks for the birthday wishes! Here is a link that might be useful: pH nutrient chart This post was edited by harborrose on Thu, Sep 19, 13 at 20:34

gardencracy, not necessarily poppies, but I'm punching some holes in my supply of boxes, cut off the top flaps, mark w/pencil, and trying those, throw some plastic w/vent slits over them and see what happens. Will use jugs but tired of taping them. I ordered several kinds of red ones from seedman.com think it was as I'm hoping to get something close to that red beauty, makes me sick to lose that. I'm trying the Livermore perennial; if they don't sprout, I'll order 3 plants from Bluestone. I also chose another red one that looked double. The only other ones I've really gone bonkers over are Tiffy's and some opium poppies I saw a photo of in Afghanistan. Whole field of real pink and white beauties. A shame. At the link is one similar but not the same (scroll thru 4 images to find the pretty bloom if it doesn't show up right away). I think they're somniferum, and I wouldn't plant any until I find out if they are legal here. Here is a link that might be useful: Pink Flamingo Papaver

I an happy to hear that the law has been clarified and that P. somniferum can be grown freely, but I'm not convinced all rural police departments necessarily are up to speed on this issue. The last time we had a long thread on growing poppies on this forum, we eventually got some inquiries from people who were wanting to grow poppies for illegal purposes and I generally just avoid discussing them for that reason. That was probably 6 to 8 years ago. Do you have a source for seeds of the Armenian poppies? I think they are beautiful but haven't ever seen the seed listed anywhere. For some reason I have it in my head that they are perennial but I don't know why I think that. A friend of mine says her mom used to grow a wide variety of poppies of many colors here in OK a long time ago, including orange ones, and she doesn't think they were California poppies because they had better cold tolerance. We've about decided they probably were Alpine poppies. I haven't grown those either, unless they came in a Poppy mix that I bought and sowed here in either 1998 or 1999. That one did have a lot of colors I've never had in a Poppy mix since then. Unfortunately they didn't seed well and come back heavily like many of the other types. Nothing has given us more garden bang for the buck than poppies. I love them so, but I'm still careful about discussing them too openly. I've seen too many shady-looking characters stop and help themselves to the poppies growing in the front pasture between our house and the road. I don't think they're cutting a bouquet to take home and put in a vase, and seeing them stop and help themselves to flowers they didn't plant and care for sort of irritates me too. I had to promise my DH I wouldn't shoot the people who were stealing my poppies. (If they'd ask, I'd tell them they could cut a bouquet if they wished, but I think I'd also warn them that if they are thinking they'd get high off of corn poppies, they are just wrong about that.) Drug use is epidemic in my county as are the types of property crimes that support addicts' habits and we are in a fairly remote area, so I am extra cautious about not doing anything that would entice the criminal types to come onto our property. Life here has changed in the last 10 years or so, and not for the better. I don't want someone hanging around thinking they will cut any of my poppies and use them for an illegal purpose, so all my double, peony or carnation type poppies aren't visible from the road. Years ago one of our neighbors warned us we needed to keep our driveway gate closed and locked at all times, which I steadfastly resisted doing for about the first 15 years here. They said we'd have all sorts of potential criminal types lurking about and up to no good, but I didn't really believe them. You know, it isn't that I didn't believe them. I did. I just felt like they were closer to main roads and not as off-the-beaten-path as we were and I thought we wouldn't have the same issues in our more remote area. Lo and behold, they were right and now we keep the driveway gate locked all the time. I don't like it, but I got tired of having strangers creeping me out by roaming around on our property without permission. There is no reason for them to be there and I suspect when I spot them that they are up to no good. So, I just figure that having P. somniferum/paeoniflorum/laciniatum out front to lure in even more of that type of people probably isn't smart in my particular situation. I'd love to have the front pasture filled not only with corn and Oriental poppies but also with all the others, but it isn't likely to happen.