It sounds just like Rub n Buff . As for using it ... it REALLY looks nice . It's like the icing on the cake. It gives awesome highlights & Lowlights. Michaels has Rub n Buff in alot of different colors. I'd suggest trying a tube .... you'll like it !

One pound of a 5-10-10 spread over aa 32 square feet (4 x 8) planting bed that has adequate amounts of organic matter is not going to do much harm. It is not a realy good thing but not too harmful either. However, 5 pounds of hte same thing spread over the same area could be and if the soil does not have adequate amounts of OM any amount can be a problem, and 10 pounds would be a lot worse. If the soil has adequate amounts of OM the soil bacteria will take care of the problem without the sugar water but if the soil does not have adequate levels of OM there will be too little soil bacterial activity for the sugar water to do much of anything except waste your money, time, and energy.

evonne, now we're back to where we were before. And your link is very specific about papaver rhoeas, what I read in two different sources pertained to field poppies but assumed it would apply to mine as well, same as what you're saying. But stage found differently. Maybe sometimes they do self pollinate. I doubt we can resolve the discrepancy unless I just try it and see what happens. Not good to keep crossing them to the same genotype though which I would have to do to keep these going if it even succeeds. Today I went out, and two are blooming simultaneously. So it isn't clear if it applies to a single bloom or all blooms on the same plant. Do you think because of the two going now (and hopefully for the rest of the buds), they will swap pollen? No, I read it again, and it says same plant or another plant of the same genotype. My you've got your terminology down better than I do. I wonder what they do to select what I would call a sport but may not be the right term for poppies. At some point in the evolution of any plant with self-incompatibiity, it must have worked or we wouldn't have so many poppies that come true from seed. It appears many don't as they are sold as mixtures such as Angels Choir. In the above photo from WA state, they must cross pollinate, self sow, and produce uniform flowers the following year or they're perennials. This is all new to me, in the dim recesses of my memory, I knew that corn self pollinates, but the link covers that, too. Some plants don't have the inhibiting factor. Others do in certain families. Must be a reason for it going one way for some and the other way for other types, suppose the experts can only speculate about that. I'm guessing for our now infamous Cherry Brandy Rudbeckia, they must have gotten a new bloom and used seeds from that for multiple generations. Where it is now, it reverts to all sorts of things. I wonder how they do select out poppies then or if they can. What about that unique grape poppy? I think it might be a rhoeas, too, but am not sure.

Just let time dry the area out & stay off the ground to avoid compacting it. We often have drizzling rains through 4th of July & our tomatoes do fine. Easy to forget a soaker. We've all done it. Next time try setting a timer in the house & putting it in your pocket. If you're not sure one will work use a 2nd timer. Also helps if you have a family member or roommate to notify & double check that it's turned off at the time you specify. Write the time down soaker on, soaker off. I know it seems simple, but helps to have that off time written down.