All the poppies I've grown were from directly seeding. Mine are blooming now, so I'm afraid it may be too late for you to have them this year. They are annuals, but readily self-seed, to come up again in the late Winter, early Spring.

I've been told by several gardeners that the best time to sow poppy seeds is in the fall, which I did last Oct/Nov. Mine are just sprouting now and are only about 2" high.

I'll be surprised if I see any flowers this year, in which case they won't be able to self-sow for next year. I don't understand how this is ever going to work...should I have thrown the seed out earlier??

Austinwildflower if you're talking about the big Oriental Poppy [Papaver orientale] that's talked about by Northern garden writers, this one kind of belongs in the experimental plant group with peonies and lilacs. You can have fun trying, and occasionally may succeed but don't plan your garden around them ;-)

Even when starting with plants instead of seeds it can take a couple of years before you see blooms from Oriental poppies. They bloom in spring and as soon as it gets hot the whole plant turns brown, shrivels up and goes dormant, but there's an enormous root under the ground.

In the North they'd put up a little tuft of leaves in fall, sit there over winter and sprout in spring, but even up there did badly in really hot, humid weather. I'm not sure how long a dormancy they need.

Will any Zone 8 Texas people who make Oriental poppies grow where they're not supposed to please share their secrets? I'd love to see these poppies again - they grew like weeds in my Illinois garden but that was a long time ago.

Annie

No clue what kind mine are. I received the seeds, from a friend, several years ago. As you can see the leaves look similar to dandelion leaves.
The first picture were the doubles and this is the singles.

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These are white Calif. poppies.

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Treelover, I never go by what "they say" when planting my cool weather annuals. I finally figured out years ago to spread the seeds around just at the time they are falling from the plant. These enclude columbine, larkspur, poppies and bluebonnets.

natvtxn -- the red ones look like the kind I was hoping to sow/grow. So... if they are setting seed soon, maybe I should sow now for next year!

I love all poppies and am trying all kinds. I have about 7 california poppy plants that got quite big from seed. One put out a flower about 2 weeks ago but it was so overcast here for about 10 days straight it stayed closed-up and then fell off. :( Hope I get to see some blooms from the other ones.

The oriental poppies look like the top ones in natvtxn's post. Their leaves are exactly like that. I bought some pint-sized oriental poppies from the natural gardener in Austin, planted them about March 8 but they have not bloomed.

The ones I sowed indoors were this packet
http://www.botanicalinterests.com/Poppy_oriental_blend.html?home=true
I've read a lot that poppies don't like to be transplanted but a few of the California poppies have survived transplants, so I thought I'd try the oriental ones that way. But like I said, they are small and by the time they get big enough to transplant it most likely will be way to hot for them.

But by far, the poppy that I am the most in love with is the variety they call "Princess Louise"--salmon-colored flowers with an intense maroon in the center. I just want this color in my garden, short-lived or not! ;)

Anyhow, I have a whole area devoted to wildflowers... some successes, some failures.. so I am not going to be sad if I never get them.

Thanks, natvtxn. I will sow them earlier this year and see if that makes a difference.

Your poppies are gorgeous. I can't look at pictures like those without feeling like Timothy the turtle (from Notes of an Abject Reptile) who longed for poppies.

Natvtxn's poppies are beautiful, but as she said, they're hardy, cold-weather annuals scattered in fall for early summer bloom. The poppy traditionally called the Oriental Poppy is a perennial, one that follows that old saying "first year sleep, second year creep, third year leap", and your plants will hopefully make a show next spring. I didn't know they were carried by the Natural Gardener, so thank you for the information.

Here's your 'Princess Louise', said to be good for cool places with short summers, unfortunately. The color is one of my favorites, too. I've also seen a lot of the Icelandic poppies used as annuals around Austin, although they can be perennial in a different climate.

Natvtxn's photos have also given me poppy envy! I need to figure out a place for the annual kind next fall.

Annie

Here is a link that might be useful: Salmon color in Oriental Poppy

I've grown the great big oriental poppies, they were from a tiny transplant. They did bloom the first year. If memory serves me, I planted the transplant in late January and they took off growing after the columbines and bloomed later than I thought. Maybe in May????

My little corn poppies are returning and only now gaining foliage leaves about 6 inches long.

The problem for me with sowing seed now: I rotate plants like acts in a play. By next January when it get cold enough for them to germinate, they'll be long buried.

I would try to be patient and plant those tiny plants outside where they might benefit from the cool. I think they need the temp. swings.

I might be wrong, got a headache, but I remember seeing a Paul James Gardening by the yard on poppies. You might google his site and see if you get the scoop

cynthia

OK I couldn't stand the suspence and I did a search.

Here is a link that might be useful: poppies

Annie, oops, I was wrong. The poppies I got from Natural Gardener said "papaver nudicaule", which now I understand are the Icelandic poppies. They were on the rack of cool season annuals.... of which there were few left. So probably they would have been better off planted in the fall. I planted them around March 8 but they were not flowering and still haven't. I'm a new gardener, so i have a lot to learn about what to plant when! I saw those poppies at the High Country Gardens site, but wasn't sure if it was too late to get them now.

Cynthia, thanks for the info... and the link. If yours didn't bloom till may, perhaps mine have a chance. I'll plant my seedlings out this week and just see what happens. I'll try and start them again in the fall so they get out in the cooler temps...

The poppies natvtxn shows in her photo are Corn Poppies. They might also be called Cross Poppies. I have seed for these that I bought from Wildseed Farms. Mine are just about 4" tall right now. I expect they'll bloom in May.

One year I went to Wildseed Farms around Mother's Day and they had the roadway planted solid with these! It was stunning! I never seem to get a thick cover even though I put out lots of seed! Maybe they float away. This is my second year to try these. I put them out earlier (in Oct) this time, but they didn't come up any earlier. :-)

Georgetown has a poppy festival around May if you're interested! You might get some good tips there!

You are right, they are corn poppies. I recently read an article on growing poppies. "They" said not to thin them. That if they are close together they will support each other to stand tall.
As I said, I throw the seeds out when the heads start to open.

I've grown Oriental Poppies for the last eight years, and believe me...they are prolific! Actually, they are taking over a good portion of my south/west-facing garden and trying to crowd out my Irises and Oriental Lilies. I could use some tips on transplanting and dividing these babies. I've heard-tell that they're hard to dig (I've never done it!) and that they hate to be divided and moved. I know the tap root is probably very difficult to dig out without harming the plant. Any suggestions would be most appreciated. Also, can I move them directly after blooming?

This is the Texas Gardening Forum, isn't it? I live in Missouri. Please forgive. I've just joined the GardenWeb and haven't quite found my way around as yet. However, I DO grow Tex-Tuf Verbeena...and it does great here in Missouri! (^;
Jess