I don't mean to piggyback on your post cyndigo, but is there a difference between California and Oriental poppies? Some sites refer to both and I'm not sure of the distinction. I ask because I bought an Oriental poppy (apparently) in a 4" pot that I wanted to put into a container with other plants and there was some concern that it would get too big for the container that I had chosen (14"X14" 10" tall). Do some grow better than others in containers? I'm brand new to this -- I live in an apartment with a boring patio -- and wanted to grow something nice. I love the look of poppies and I may just have chosen the wrong one.

Rita, I sure hope my Calif. poppies turn out looking as great as yours do. They did really well in the milk jugs, got so big, I had to open the jugs up, harden them and plant them in flowerbeds..We have had so much rain and expecting more rain at least 2 days this coming week. Today, it started out really breezy but has warmed up and I've been tying up clematis vines, planting dianthus, marigold seeds, digging up a run away ice plant and planting some gladiola bulbs..hoping the Calif. poppy's start showing signs of growing. I think they need some warm sunshine for about a week at least, as I do!

Terri, that was a good article. I wish the article had included a picture of the poppies, though. I got some seed marked "Gray-Seeded Poppy" in a bunch of seeds mailed to me as bonus in a seed trade. I have seen posts by people who say it is illegal to grow them so I'm glad to see in the article you provided the link to about "intent". I am one of those gray-haired grandmothers. Here is a picture of the poppies that grew from the seed I was sent: I thought the flowers were quite attractive. The center of the flower reminds me of a little spaceship. When the flower is done, it leaves a pod that looks to me like a little salt shaker on a stem. When the seeds have matured enough, the pod dries and shrinks back from a little scalloped "hat" to reveal holes. If you turn the pod upside down and give it a little shake, the seeds will come out like salt out of a salt shaker. They are, indeed, gray. Like the article said, I would think you could plant poppy seed from your spice rack. In the case of something like marijuana, you can get in trouble for having either the plant or the seed. So since we can buy poppy seed in any store, and I've never heard of anyone raiding somebody's spice rack, I find it a little odd that anybody's raiding someone's flower garden. Again, I suppose it would make a difference if you had an entire FIELD of them, as the article said. --Ilene

I should have some poppy seeds for you in a few weeks.