For years, I collected CA poppy seeds and tossed them out in the spring. For years, I'd see a bloom or two in the fall. Last fall, I left them to self sow and this is the first year that I've had a bunch to flowers. Two other changes this year - we had a cooler then normal summer and the plants received much more water. Not at all scientific but I'll let some of them self sow again. I read somewhere that they need cool weather to germinate... I successfully WSed red oriental poppies, as well as pink and black peony poppies. I left a few seed heads on the red oriental poppies for self sowing but also collected some for WSing. Peony poppy seeds are too hard to find to leave up to Ma Nature - IMO - so those will be WSed.

The white fleshy attachments are called elaisomes - serves to attract ants which are their method of seed dispersal. You'll find them on dicentra, trillium, epimedium, others. The Clothiers site says seed germinates best at 41o and is erratic. I sowed late May harvested seeds (snatched really) in Fall and had germination in December - the seedlings were fine getting hit with temps of 22 in February

Let them ripe on the stem outdoors, some pods will turn black, but that will be ok, they will mature inside the pod. Once you hear that shaking going on, their ready to harvest. If they are still green, let them be, I've collected poppy seeds in the middle of November at times. Sharon

Glad you found something you could use in that, Mary! If you haven't collected much seed before, here are a couple other things that might be helpful! On some plants the seed can be very hard to find! There are a few things I've never been able to find seed on! Some plants "shoot" their seed all over the place--before you even realize the seed is ripe! In that case, by the time you go looking odds are that it's already been "planted" for you and you'll find VERY little left "on the plant!" (Acanthus is a fine example of that! Sweet violets too, tho there's usually some seed left to collect on those!) Not all plants produce VIABLE seed! Even tho you find "seed" on a plant, it could be something that's sterile so the "seed" will never germinate--since there's no "germ!" (Hybrid ornamental blue fescue is an example of a sterile plant!) Some plants will produce "seed pods" but there won't be any seed inside! Last year I let my new sky-blue grape hyacinths ('Valerie Finnis') go to seed--they were REALLY ugly for a couple months!--and when it finally looked like the seed pods were ripe I collected them and didn't find seed in ANY of them! That was a real disappointment in that case, but since they multiply underground very easily I didn't even try again this year! ("Regular" grape hyacinths reseed all over the place--in addition to the bulbs multiplying!) Any hybrid plants you collect seed from will very likely not come true from the seed you collected! In other words, the plants you start from seed will be somewhat to a lot different from the parent plant. Most hybrids grown from seed tend to revert back to whatever the dominant plant they were "crossed" with was, or they revert back to the simplest "straight species" of the plant--just depends on how the hybrid was developed. Bottom line is that with seeds from a hybrid you never know for sure what you're gonna get until they bloom! To get a hybrid plant that's true to the parent you need to either divide the original plant, successfully root cuttings from the parent plant, or use some other "vegetative propagation" method like "tissue culture," which is really a commercial thing done in sterile conditions and I suspect you're not gonna try that at home! Wikipedia has a really good article on vegetative propagation! Hybrid Oriental poppies can be started vegetatively from root cuttings to get a clone of the parent, and if you're ever interested in trying that let me know and I'll copy/paste my directions for you! If you're interested in seed saving, you might want to check out some of the basic seed saving videos from the Webinars link I just posted. Seed Savers Exchange deals mostly with veggie seeds so I think that's what they show in the videos, but the principles are the same for any seed saving! What it all gets down to in the end is that seed collecting and saving is a fun--and worthwhile--thing to do, but it's never a Sure Thing. You need to just keep Playing At It and see "what develops" (pun intended), and don't be disappointed if you don't find or don't get what you were hoping for! And it's always a good idea to "proof" the seed you collect on some damp paper towel in a baggie before you try to start it, or before you give it away to somebody. And if you're giving hybrid seed to somebody I highly recommend you let them know it's seed from a hybrid and that you can't guarantee what they might wind up with (two seeds collected from the same hybrid plant can be different when they're grown!) [That's how many hybrids are developed! By crossing a This with a That in "isolation" and then growing them to see what they get!] Have fun playing with it, and once you get going come back and tell us all about your results! Skybird Here is a link that might be useful: Vegetative Propagation