Wow, beautiful photo. I had a good bed of them last year here in 6b near Boston, and just let them go to seed and fall on the ground. There's a good chance those seeds will germinate and grow this spring?

Mine reseed every year. I expect germination any day now. I fell in love with them in Tucson and they are allowed to grow wherever they want in my garden.

California poppies are annuals that grow in cooler weather. In their southwest locations, they sprout in winter with rain and cold weather and bloom in February and March. They die when it gets hot after spreading their seeds for the next winter.

I thought it's one of those plants that are perennial where they're native but "grown as an annual" elsewhere. I see several web sites that call it a 'cool season annual', but here's this from a Davis, California newspaper:

"Unlike many annual wildflowers, Eschscholzia californica is technically a perennial. The tiny seeds produce a plant with a deep taproot that survives through the hot, dry, dormant season to flourish with the fall and winter rains. However, this plant can also be an annual where conditions aren’t good enough to support a taproot. They will grow and bloom from seed, then die out entirely."

So when it's a perennial, the taproot is to get it through the summer, not the winter!

Ah, here's a scholarly article entitled "Comparison of Annual and Perennial Eschscholzia californica (Papaveraceae) at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve"

Plant adaptations are amazing. Here in upstate New York, the plants sort of die back in the heat of summer after initial seed production, then put out fresh growth in fall with the cooler weather. Our winter kills them. I think the taproot helps the plant get water in drought in the desert. Here, the plants get enough water and have shorter tap roots which makes them wilt during a drought.

I don't know that I would trust the article about California poppies being perennial in the Yolo County News website. Maybe it's true. Half of the web articles say they're perennial and half say they're annual.

I watch them grow in late winter in Arizona. They are Mexican goldpoppies, a close relative. I've never seen a perennial poppy there. As the research study said, maybe the poppies in the 2 areas studied, came from two different populations.

In any case, they are my favorite wildflower. I always buy a packet each year, just in case, but never had to use them in my garden. I can't wait to see those little seedlings...maybe this week! Enjoy!