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California poppies won't bloom

14 years ago

I planted some California poppies after I took out the lawn and they bloomed and did great. The second batch, I planted after that just won't bloom. Is it too late in the season for them to bloom? I have mild weather all year in fact Oct. is the month that san francisco has the most sun, but is the day too short? I just weed around them, they are easy care and I did not admend the soil because I wanted them to have native soil so they would bloom more.

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Comments (6)

dak56
14 years ago
I'd look for blooms again in late winter to early spring. Your native lawn sounds nice.
Martalan
14 years ago
Are you sure they did not lack of nutrition?
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Laurel Zito
Original Author
14 years ago
Still no luck with these poppies, but one of them did bloom, but it was a Mikado California poppy. These poppies were some red CA poppies, I got the seeds at the home depot. I could have gotten plain orange ones, but those can be invasive if you let them go to seed. Maybe those would bloomed. We have lots of sun right now, more sun then in the summer.
Laurel Zito
Original Author
14 years ago
But, most of them still won't bloom, only these two, but I have like 50 more plants all over my "non lawn", and it's like just no blooms. The one plant, only has one flower. The orange ones have a lot of blooms on each plant.

Here is a link that might be useful: photo red poppies
terrene
14 years ago
Wow, those red ones are very pretty! I got some 'Mikado' in a seed trade, however the seeds did not sprout. Perhaps they are not a very vigorous cultivar. I think I'm going to buy some and give it another try.

I have 'Purple gleam' and 'Linen white' (which is more cream colored) in the front garden and they reseed prolifically every year. Never have to sow those. They look nice along the edge of the driveway.

In this climate, they are annual and have a nice flush of blooms in late Spring/early summer, then die back a bit in the heat and bloom less. I usually shear them to tidy them up, and they perk up in the fall. I have no idea what their growth pattern is in California, where they are native.

This is 'Linen white' -
vetivert8
14 years ago
I'd agree with dak56 and terrene - February to September. As they're well established already you could get a great display!

If you have naturally rich soil in your garden you might need to 'keep it skinny' if you want to keep on with the poppies. I know that I've seen this plant growing really well in roadside shingle, and around abandoned parking lots where the heat comes off the blacktop and the 'soil' is seriously thin.

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