How important is fall foliage to oriental poppies?

12 years ago

This summer I propagated oriental poppies by picking off some of the nubs (don't know the technical term) from the root crown and re-planting them elsewhere. The nubs are the size and shape of baby carrots (the processed kind) and the mother plant had one corresponding to each of this spring's flower stems; they all direct back to a single taproot.

Many of the "cuttings" died; it was too hot this August when I planted them, so those in full sun just dried out. A few others grew some weak, flimsy leaves that appeared soon after, and I do know from one I accidentally dug up that they produced some fine roots before setting leaves. The ones that were shaded by other plants and well-watered have now produced little rosettes of poppy leaves that are no bigger than Brussels sprouts.

Even the "mother" plant which leafed out again this fall has rosettes no bigger than Brussels sprouts.

My question is, does this foliage actually provide some energy for the plants to grow and establish? Or is it just a vestigial feature from the plant's wild ancestors where fall foliage played a bigger role?

It's hard for me to imagine that leaves this small are significantly contributing to the establishment of the cuttings or, for that matter, to the growth of the parent plant, which is a huge, deep taproot several feet long that is now capped by just a tiny little saucer-sized leaf area of several little plants. Has anyone observed a significant amount of root growth in oriental poppies autumn? And can I expect this to persist well into the winter or will it disappear with the first hard frost?

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Comments (7)

aquawise
12 years ago
The fall leave work to provide the Root, food to store over winter. Small root small leaves. Leave them till frost kills them back then you can remove them, IMHO. I have these as well and they do this same thing every year. Don't rush Mother Nature! LOL!!!
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pizzuti
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks aquawise. I'm not concerned that the leaves are there and I don't want to remove them; I was just hoping for bigger leaves. I'm concerned that they are so small and I'm wondering if the plants are stunted for some reason, and if there's a problem if some don't produce fall leaves at all.
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Even in zone 4, Oriental poppies are up and fairly good sized already. The image feature on Google has some nice photos of Oriental poppy seedlings and even better pictures if you Google the images for Oriental poppy leaves. It isn't inconceiveable that you got a bad batch of plants - even the most reputable mail order outfit isn't immune from having some failures - or that you may have suffocated them with a topdress of compost in the event you put on a thick layer. The literature says mulch/compost around but not directly on poppies. But in any case, they should have broken ground in your zone quite a while ago.
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Dormancy is a resting phase when plant metabolic activity and growth are negligible. Dormancy is triggered by increasing cold temperatures and decreased day length, the same stimuli associated with leaf loss in deciduous plants. Once dormancy has been established growth, can only be re-initiated after the plant has experienced a required number of hours (i.e., chill hours) at cool temperatures (i.e., 32-45Â°F; 0-8Â°C). Chill hours are accumulated during the autumn and winter seasons. This clever adaptation allows a plant to sense winterÂs approach and to schedule a resting phase during the coldest season. Growth resumes during more favorable conditions in spring, but only after ample cold weather. Matching the length of a cropÂs chill hour requirement to the climate is critical. Selecting crops with a very large chill hour requirement relative to the hours of cool temperature at a location would not prevent plants from resuming active growth in the spring; however, it would reduce the number of fertile flowers produced by the plants. Crops, such as peaches, with short chill hour requirements, may completed early in the cold season may break dormancy during a warm period mid-winter, resulting in freeze damage when more typical cold temperatures resume. Chill hour requirements vary within a crop.
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Hi Debbie, I've had success with direct sowing oriental poppies (a mix from William Dam w/ pink, red, and white blooms) They didn't bloom the first year but the second year they were spectacular! I think they bloomed again the third year but we moved sometime in there and I can't quite recall how many years they bloomed for me. Sadly, I had saved a bunch of seed from them and promptly lost them during the move. They were planted alone in one area almost on the south edge of the garden in full sun. The soil was silty with a touch of clay, but I had no drainage issues there. I wouldn't hesitate to try them again, but somehow I keep forgetting to add them to my order. The blooms were just huge and they were about 3' tall with dark green fuzzy almost prickly foilage. Note to self...remember to add them to my order this winter!! Toots
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aquawise
12 years ago
On my plants, and they are old plants, The fall leaves are small! they get just so big and then they quit growing. Come spring there will be much larger and a lot more leaves. Your new starts my be small for a year! but will do well and bloom the following year. Here is a link to my garden and my Poppies are in there. Hope this eases your concerns about them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gallery
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pizzuti
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks for the answer, aquawise.

I've heard from a couple places that the newly-planted root cuttings will not be able to get large enough to bloom next year - but others have said that even seeds planted in summer will grow a little in fall and grow a lot more in very early spring and could manage to bloom under the right conditions.

Anyone had experiences with getting seedlings or root cuttings to bloom the season after they were planted?
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wieslaw59
12 years ago
Well, this is definitely not always the case. I bought some Papaver orientale varieties some years ago, and there are at least 3 or 4 that have not yet bloomed . The cuttings made out of the old crown do not make new roots easily. As far as I know Papaver orientale is propagated by root cuttings, like Eryngiums and Echinops(roots cut into pieces). On the other hand, if you dig a well growing clump up, it will be coming back forever from the smallest pieces.Isn't this ironic ?
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Kaveh Maguire Garden Design
12 years ago
My experience when I lived back east and grew oriental poppies was that if I didn't get fall foliage the plant didn't come back in the spring.
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pizzuti
Original Author
12 years ago
^The pieces I am plucking out of the crown are not completely stem or root but I think they are functioning much more like roots. They are full of the gooey latex sap that comes from roots, which I think contains a lot of stored energy, and clearly the tissue is still fully alive though the plant is completely dormant.

I think it is basically a root cutting and has had a very high success rate when it is put in a cool/cold spot. A few that I thought had died... recently produced leaves, to my surprise. And many of the true root cuttings I made by digging very low down on the plant have not produced any leaves at all! Those all failed, but the cuttings containing parts of the dormant crown of the plant survived.
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How important is fall foliage to oriental poppies?

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How important is fall foliage to oriental poppies?

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