The best way to remember the sowing depth for any seed is thusly:

Seed size is indicative of sowing depth.

For instance:

* Tiny or Fine seeds (like petunias, delphiniums, larkspur, foxgloves, chamomile (and most herbs), nicotiana, POPPIES, most perennials, & etc): loosen soil, sprinkle on and gently press so they make contact with soil. Water with a fine mist to settle them into the soil.

* Medium sized seeds (like tomato, onions, zinnias, lettuce, Calendula, marigolds, hollyhock, & etc.): do same thing, only cover with a little bit of soil - 1/8 to 1/4 inch. Water as for fine seeds.

* Bigger seeds (morning glory, sunflower, radish, sweet peas, beets, nasturtiums, pansies, Cannas, okra, &etc.) : Ditto, only cover with a little more soil - 1/4 to 1/2 inch.

* Large seeds like corn, okra, peas or beans, Hyacinth bean, gourds, Castor beans, &etc.): Ditto, 3/4 to 1 inch depth of soil.

That's pretty much it!
Size of seed is indicative of sowing depth.

~ Annie

Thank you Annie, I can remember this easily. And may I sprinkle whenever the water soaks in but the ground is still soft? The frost has gone out but the snow is falling again. I assume Mother Nature will then just take her course?

I'm going to try to plant these seeds with a poking stick wherever necessary, since I can't bend or stoop. That should work shouldn't it?

MeMo who never has much luck with seeds, except for vegetable seeds. no, I don't know why.

I can never get the perennial poppies to germinate. I had heard that a cold/warm cycle aids in germination so mine are in the fridge right now. The annual poppies are much easier. It's the perennials I have the most difficult time with. But I love the annuals - they reseed all over the place and come back in unexpected places. I trade for pink and purple this year in the seed exchange.

Memo, ask the Rancher to cut a piece of 1/2" or 3/4" pvc pipe for you to use as a planting aid. Cut it a comfortable length for you, then place the pipe atop the spot where you want the seed to go. Drop the seed down the pipe, and there it will be! No bending, no stooping. You can also cover them in the same manner. Just pour a bit of vermiculite or fine soil down the pipe, and step on the soil to bring it into firm contact with the seed. Water according to Annie's advice.

You can mix poppy seed (or any other fine seed) with a bit of sand, and use a salt shaker or a cheese shaker to sow them. Sow them on the snow, they will germinate in their own time. The sand keeps them from bunching up so much.

And in case you do get poppies bunched up, you can divide and transplant them by burying the little poppies up to their leaves in their new spot. They don't really like to be transplanted, but you can do it, and they will be fine. Try to do it when they are young as possible.

Good Luck!

Janie

Add a funnel to the top of the pipe that Janie recommends to make it a little easier to plant small seeds.

I tossed out poppy seeds last month. I didn't cover and we've had lots of rain and snow. They're popping (hehe) up all over now. I would agree that they need a cold/warm period for good germination. Some even recommend sowing them on top of snow. Mine have been covered twice by snow.

-Memo, I would love to see a pic of your garden! I love pastel and always wish I could have stuck to a color scheme in my garden.
I just throw seed into the garden. I don't bother to cover them with soil. I weed out the unwanted ones later. Poppies arn't very fussy. I have planted poppies (my pink breadseed) as late as May before and they came up fine. Now I even like to throw out some late seed so I will get some blooming in summer/fall, when all the other ones have browned and been pulled.
CMK

The Red poppies that are given out by various businesses are usually annual Papaver rhoeas, commonly known as Corn Poppy, Field Poppy, Shirley Poppy, Flanders Poppy, or Red Poppy. All the methods named are effective; the important part is to get the seeds out of the little packets and onto the ground, as soon as possible.

Memo, are you going to let us back into your Blog, ever again? I need to know whether to delete it from my feeds list.

Nell

My poppies last year came from a give-away seed packet that my mother got from some charity. The seeds were about 3 years old by the time I got around to sowing them - I was not inspired by the photo on the packet so they just sat in the seed box.

I just surface sowed on nicely puffed soil in the early spring and watered them in lightly. The photos of those poppies are in the attached link.

I was just amazed by how pretty they were. When the sun lights them up from behind they are a distinctive shade of red that's like nothing but a poppy. From now on they will always have a place in my garden. They are so much prettier than I expected.

Lynda

Here is a link that might be useful: Poppies from freebie seed packet

Stand up wind from where you want them and hold your palm up with the seeds in your palm.

Janie, you are a Genious!! In a million, I would never have thought of the tube idea. Brilliant, brilliant!! As I thought about it I remembered that there was a piece of PVC in the corner out on the porch (waste not, want not is the Ranchers philosophy, ugh, but in this case he is forgiven). It just so happens to be the perfect length. I'm not going to mention it to him though. ;)

I'm on my way now to hunt for a funnel in the kitchen, Token. I hope I have one small enough for the pipe, 1/2" ID, I think. If I find one to fit I'll tape the pieces together so I'll have better hand control. I may need to make some sort of holder to keep the pipe under control while I handle the seed packet and the seeds.

Oh! yeppers! I have a funnel and my DD2 has it all taped together now and has drawn cute little pictures all down the pipe for me. I'm all set now once this snow melts off so I can see where I'm planting!

You guys are awesome! Where would I be without you all?!!

Thanks,
MeMo

Hi Memo - I'm a new member in zone 4 (central Vermont). I too, have those promo poppy seeds, some of which date back ten years or so. Wondering about viability. But what's to lose?

MeMo,

You won't need the tube to plant Poppies. Just scatter them where you want them to grow. Water them in lightly to settle them down into the soil. That's it. As Kathy said, the wind is great for sowing poppy seeds. In fact, it carries poppy seeds to other locations in my garden all by itself. I find them coming up in the most peculiar places. They love to grow out in the lawn best of all. (sigh)
* I think they might also get tracked from one location to the next on the bottom of shoes or from cat's (dog's) feet.

Hello Skibby! Welcome to the Cottage :) I'll plant my poppies if you plant yours. You're right, what's to loose??!

Thanks again Annie, I would so love to be a spirited seed scatter like the rest of you but the truth is, that if the Rancher finds one flower outside the flower beds, he will be a very unhappy man. He is just sure I'm going to plant something that will take over the meadows and the pastures. I have to be really careful of what I add here. Please don't tell me that these pretty little poppies are going to blow all over the place when they set seed! Will I need to deadhead them as soon as the blooms are done? Everyone said the poppies reseed themselves so nicely so I guess I thought the seed would just drop in place. See what I know about poppies. Now I'm getting freaked out about them. Geez, I don't even know if these are annuals or not but I'm guessing they are. The pkg. just says Red Poppies. Ha! As far as poppies in the lawn...if they wouldn't hurt to step on and would crowd out the sand burs, I'd plant a million pkgs. ;)

MeMo

plantmaven has the right idea.

I do nothing but sprinkle & walk away. Here's my bed a couple years ago with a few of its inhabitants:

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These pictures are so inspiring! I've had some, but not
enough. Yesterday afternoon I put out all my poppie seeds,
Iceland, left over collected seeds, californias I had received as a freebie, and even one of my own Origami envelopes labeled POPPIES???? I put them wherever there was
an open space on my steep West facing back hill. Now I'll
just have to wait.

My seeding goal is to get ALL my seeds out of the big shoe
box and into the soil--no matter how old the seeds are!

MeMo,

The wind won't blow your poppy seeds all over your ranch, I promise. They are encapsulated within a little pod and will only come out if disturbed or knocked over and crushed or if you let the plants self-seed by dropping its little pods down in the dirt next to where it grew. They will stay within the area where they are grown. However, if you need to keep them withing a definite boundary, harvest the seeds heads after the flower petals fall off. Let them dry in a paper bag and then store them. Then next year, scatter them where you need them to be again.

Nothing is foolproof when growing flowers. Containing flower seeds is not 100%, but most garden variety seeds do not go air born. Sometimes mice carry seeds or ants. Birds do too, and we track them on our shoes and deposit them in other parts of the garden. Sometimes water carries seeds to other locations, but your poppy seeds are not going to fly through the air and seed all over the place. That I can assure you, okay?

So go ahead and plant them. ;)

~Annie

-mmqchdygg, very nice! I especially like that one that is second from last. What is it please? Do you get a lot of cross-breeding poppies in your garden?
CMK

Oh, good- you asked me one that I know...haha. That's "Giganteum." I think it's also referred to as a regular breadseed poppy.

The pods are HUGE, and you get lots of seed from them. I had a bowl-full of them at one point, then realized I don't NEED that many seeds (problem was, I had mixed in a couple of other kinds in with them, which aren't all edible, so that made actually USING them impossible), so I dumped them last fall. DOH!

Cross-breeding...couldn't tell you. The bed is only 3 years old, and 07 was the first year I put in all those varieties. Got them on ebay from a seller "onestoppoppyshop." She's got great choices.

I also liked the giganteums the most, and put only those in last year, so I really don't know if there was any cross-breeding. They didn't LOOK any different last year from collected seed.

Hi Lavendrfem,

The perennial Oriental poppies need to be sown on the surface, but need darkenss to germinate. After you sow your seeds in a flat, cover with newspaper. Seeds are very tiny. Sow generously(about a pinch/plug). Oriental Poppies will germinate in about 15 days at 55 degrees. At that time you can remove the newspaper. If you collect seed from you own oriental poppies they will germinate in half the time.

Well you go girl! Scatter those seeds! Poppies grow wild in California (an arid state) You see poppies everywhere, all spring and summer. The golden poppy is our state flower.

Mine are generally planted in the fall and then they come up the next spring. These are ones I got from a friend who shared the seeds.

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A different variety from the same friend.

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I only got acquainted with California Poppies a couple years ago. The foliage is different, the flowers are different, and the seed pods are REALLY different. Instead of a round pod, Eschscholzia have a long, thin pod like a tiny field pea and a bigger seed than the other papavers.

I collect the seed pods when they're just starting to dry and have formed little lines on them, placing them in a large paper bag. When we're sitting around in the quiet of late evening a few days later, suddenly there's that loud 'POP' when the seeds get dry and suddenly open. The bag keeps the seeds from flying everywhere.

They are actually a short-lived perennial; I have some left from last year that survived our humidity. I hope to plant some of the pastels next fall.

Nell

dude!

Your flowers are all gorgeous!!

Your blue Nigellas (LIAM) are just out of this world! (hehehe) To me they look like something from Mars, esp. the seed pods. I can't grow anything like that! Only a few of the seeds ever sprout and they just look better when planted thickly like that to get the "mist" affect.

Is that a Clary Sage I see? I can grow those really well.
Pretty pale lilac flowers.

What is that purple leaf plant with pink flowers (or growth) on top in the first photo? Ohhhh, I like that.

~Annie

Oh my gosh!!! You have all inspired me to no end. Truly.

mmqchdygg, beautiful! You have so many different ones. I know that there are also yellows and peach colors in addition to the shades of pink, lavender and reds that you have, are there others? Thanks for sharing, I love the big bed out in the open lawn!

GrandmaChris, I'm going to try to plant all of mine too. I wish you a glorious garden!

Annie, I'm going to take your word for it. I'll scatter as soon as the temp rises above freezing. We're sitting at 0 at the moment. Brrr!

HerbLayd49, I "clipped" your tip in case I need it myself, later on. Thanks for sharing it :)

Thanks Edna! The Golden Rod is our state flower LOL!!

nckvilledudes, wow! How pretty they all are. the first picture really made my heart go piter-pat. Thanks for sharing your pics with us!

Nell, I learn something new from every post you write. Is it all the seed pods that pop or just certain kinds? My grandson would really get a kick out of that ;)

Thanks everyone,
MeMo

FYI- for the record, that above-ground garden serves a very practical purpose: the leach field is directly below it, and it never would green up...always was brown. Since I couldn't plant anything there, I opted to go 'up' and put in this Iris/Poppy/Cosmos bed. Wah-la! No more brown patch on the lawn!

Only the California Poppies' seed pods POP, Memo. I don't know why they're all called poppies.

The caps on the round seed pods of breadseed poppies and corn poppies open little holes at the top edges so that the seeds sprinkle out as if it were a little shaker. It's also fascinating to watch the blossom unfurl when a poppy bud opens. The silky petals are crammed in there so tightly.

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If you right click on the thumbnail and open in a New Window, you can see a little poppy bud bent over like a little shepherd's crook on the left just under the big blossom. The buds slowly turn straight up to open, notice the bud about to open over to the right. Then notice the seed pods, still green, with the little crown around the top. The holes open just under the crown.

On the right is the ferny foliage of California poppies and some closed blossoms because this was taken in bright sunlight. You can just see beginning seed pods -- California poppy seed pods start out tiny just after the petals fall and get bigger and about 3 inches long.

You can see Corn poppy seed pods (smaller, with finer seeds) in the lower right corner of N Dude's first picture. Don't miss the Verbena bonariensis in Dude's bottom picture.

Nell

Here is a link that might be useful: Breadseed, Calfornia and Corn Poppy Album again - Foxes

Annie, glad you liked the Nigella. It reseeds for me like a weed and I am constantly having to pull seedlings up. The same goes for euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii and the common donkey tail spurge.

You are correct in spotting the clary sage plant and it reseeds for me as well. I like the flower and foliage on it but must admit that when you crush the leaves it smells like cat p*ss to me. LOL A lot of the sages/salvias smell like that to me as well.

The purplish burgandy plant is a king crimson barberry. Great to use as a hedge because of all the prickles. Also great since it is drought tolerant when established.

Glad you liked the pictures memo.

Here's what Tracy DiSabato-Aust says on her blog about planting poppies:
"The best germination success of annual species, for the home gardener in colder climates, seems to occur when the seeds are sown directly in February or March when the ground is free of snow. Also to ensure success IÂve learned to order fairly large quantities of seedsÂone small packet just doesnÂt cut it. "

You can see her blog at www.tracylive.com, if you want to see pics of her poppies.

I don't get over to the discussion side as often as I'd like, but I'm sure glad I read this post. So many of my questions have been answered here about poppies! Thanks MeMo and everyone! I'm looking forward to sowing my poppy seeds TODAY!
Also I didn't know that Tracy DiSabato-Aust had a blog. I've learned more about caring for my gardens from reading her books than from any other source. Thanks Nell!

MeMo - If you haven't done it already, you might consider taping a yogurt cup to the top of your PVC planting tube, just below the funnel. This is to hold your seeds. You can also tape a stick about the diameter of a lipstick to the bottom of the pipe. Then, for seeds where you need a hole in the soil, just push in the stick, lift up, move the pipe over the hole, and drop your seed through the pipe. After your seeds are in, you can come back and cover them up with a rake. If you try to use the pipe alone to poke the seed into the ground, it tends to clog up with dirt.

I used one like this last year to plant a couple thousand sunflowers and it worked pretty well, although I'm thinking about a new and improved model for this year. If it's long enough, you can stand straight up as you plant - lots easier on the back.

ThinMan

I've just built myself a planting pole. I've got a lot of seeds to scatter and I want to get a nice mass of planting going. When I toss them, I seem to end up with clumps of seedlings rather than a nice evenly spaced grouping. I think it has something to do with the size of my hands in relation to the tiny seeds. The poppies I sowed, two huge clumps. Bare ground surrounds them. I wanted them more spread out. I suppose I could still transplant big clumps of soil without disturbing the roots, but this was supposed to be easy and quick.

Lesson learned: I'm never satisfied.

Nell, thank you so much, your post of the 11th, it was so informational for me. I have clipped it and all the relevant pics so I can refer back to it as I step into the world of poppies. I've also bookmarked your album and Tracy's blog. Thanks so much!

TM, the yogurt cup is for holding seeds in packets or loose seeds? I won't be planting anything by the thousands I don't think, Ha! I tried to explain to the rancher what you said here and he laughed and said he'd take care of it. I'm not sure if that is good or if it might be not so good. Here's to holding one's breath!

Tom, on the few occasions that I did sow seeds randomly I tried to spread them in a spiral so they would come out in a more evenly spaced clump. I didn't pour them out into my hand, I just took a pinch at a time between my first finger and my thumb and sprinkled rather than scattering or flinging. Maybe that would work better for you? Wishing you luck in finding the best way for you.

When Janie initially mentioned the pole planter my thought was to drop in a seed at a time and follow it with the needed amount of soil to cover the seed per Annie's instructions. So I played around here on my living room rug trying to figure out which would work best, what I imagined or what ThinMan was suggesting and....I'm still not sure. My neck began to stiffen up from looking down at the ground so much, trying to line up the planter with the imaginary hole. Maybe I'm doing this all wrong. ThinMan, I think I may need an instructional video LOL!!

MeMo

I don't know about a video, MeMo, but here is a picture of my crude little device.

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1) I poke a hole in the dirt using the stick on the end of the pipe.
2) I lift up and slide the stick forward a little bit so the pipe lines up with the hole.
3) I drop the seed through the pipe.

Poke...slide...Drop and repeat.

Step two is the hardest, getting the pipe right over the hole, but I was able to do it most of the time.

What I would like to do is make a beak like thing on the end so I can poke it into the ground and then open the beak and drop the seed in - like an old-fashioned potato planter, if you've ever seen one of those.

If I get a new and improved model going, You will be the first one I tell.

I wonder what the rancher is going to come up with. Something pretty clever, I bet.

ThinMan

I made me a seed planting pole too. Mine has a nail on the end of it. Most of the seeds I plant with this will be tiny seeds that scattering just doesn't work. The larger seeds are easy to see.

I'll use sand behind the seeds to mark where I placed them. The nail holds the pole in place while I fumble with two cups.

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memo, I look forward to seeing pics of your poppy blooms!

In my cold zone 3 garden poppies are just one of the happy weeds. The Oriental poppies self seed and we have to move them sometimes altho they don't like that. Sulk for awhile but usually recover. The Iceland poppies self- seed but they are not as pretty IMO so many of them get pulled. Grown originally from seed and drop their seeds close by the mother plant. I have several of the Oriental poppies in a bed I almost completely ignore and they seldom get watered but are huge.

I bot a package at a plant sale for 25¢ labelled pink and red poppies and they were beautiful peony poppies. Unfortunately they must be marginal in this climate and I deadheaded so they didn't seed and didn't return. Planted more seed the next year (last year) but didn't have as many grow. Saved seed as well as sowed seed so should have some coming and will plant more when I can see the earth! They bloomed the first year from an early planting.

I'm almost afraid to look at my seed box but want to get most planted this year as well as, of course, buy more.

Here is a link that might be useful: pink peony poppy

ThinMan, Why, Your pole is almost identical to mine! Same pole, exact same funnel! Yogurt cup, yep. Only the tape differs. Mine is black, not gray. LOL! I caught the Rancher looking it over today so I know he's thinking about it ;)

Token, I think that will work! I like the sand idea too.

Luckygal, thanks for the poppy information. I love that pink poppy!

MeMo

you must be engineers.

Personally, I'm a (busy, but) lazy gardener, and never see the point of 'gadgets.' Don't they even sell one of those baby nose-sucker-thingies and call it a seed planter? LOL.

Tools, yes. Gadgets...nope, I just don't get it.

mmqchdygg,

I am recently disabled. My spine is broken at three places (not repairable by surgery due to a prior surgery gone bad) and I have numerous other nerve disturbances and degenerative processes going on in my body because of that. I can no longer stand, or walk very well, or for very long. Getting down on my hands and knees and bending over is completely out of the question. Kinda hard to garden if one can't do any of those things, wouldn't you say? My gardening friends here, are just trying to help me find ways to continue doing what I love to do. I would consider the planting pole a "tool" not a gadget and I think it would be great tool for anyone who suffers from back pain if they bend over too much or have bad knees or trouble getting off the ground etc. It works readily from a standing or sitting position. You just have to make it to the proper length that will work for you.

Yesterday, equipped with my new planting pole, so beautifully created by you wonderful Cottage Gardeners, I was able to plant more than 300 Hollyhock seeds. There is a little trick to using it, I found. It took me a bit to figure it out though. Finally I realized that if you stick the attached stick in the ground at an angle vs straight down, with the pole lying directly above the stick, rather than pulling the wooden stick completely up and out of the hole and then fiddling to line the pole back up over the hole, you can instead pull the stick partially out of the hole (because it went in at an angle). Automatically the pole is lined up over the hole. You can now drop your seed down the pole and it acts like a chute sending the seed straight into the hole. One warning, don't push the stick into the earth so far that you plug the pole with dirt! It is a little bit tricky to get it up in the air so you can clean out the hole without spilling all your seed out of the yogurt cup that is up at the top by your funnel, LOL! Otherwise...You are in bussiness!!
With many many thanks to all of you, I'm gardening again! I can't tell you what it means to me.

MeMo

MeMo - you are so adaptable!!! I know that you are not perfect, but your health sounds like you are in a good place!!! I am so glad. It's not an easy thing. I am in good health, but tend to tap dance on the edge of wrecking myself. I always think that I can heal myself. I just forget that it takes longer, as I get older - lol!!!

Nancy.

MeMo,

Where there's a will, there's a way.
I am soooo proud of You!

((HUGS))

~Annie

Way to go MeMo, you are such an inspiration to me and like Annie I am so very proud of you. We'll all be waiting for pic's later on.

Annette

Memo it is so good to hear you are back in your garden. That's got to bring some lovely health benefits to you...if only mental ones. :0)

AHH!!!!! I see said the blind man! Most definitely in the 'necessary tools' category! Sorry, I work with engineers, and have had this sort of discussion with them before, and it's just the type of thing they'd do to 'complicate' a process. In this case, though, it's quite the opposite, and I accordingly insert both feet in mouth.
Good for you for getting back out there and not letting it keep you down, memo!

LOL, No offense taken, mmqchdygg. We just don't always look at all the possible reasons for everything. Have a great day!

MeMo