My experience with oriental poppies has been less than exhilarating, of course, I don't exactly have the right kind of yard, what with dense, but rich wet clay & all the amendments to make it workable. Anyway, bought 2 good sized plants plants, supposedly both red. Planted them in my good rich garden soil. Did okay, but one was orange instead of red, & it took 3 years of growing it to find that out. Dug up the red (know you're not supposed to move them because of the taproot) but couldn't stay the orange/red color clash. The moved one lived, but took 2 more years to rebloom. The orange one, which I didn't move, promptly died. Anyway, the red one started blooming well, a dozen or so blooms, and finally a year or so gave me a baby offset. Hasn't bloomed yet, hopefully year 3 will be a winner, but I sure hope it's not orange. Anyway, after some construction work, I found a place where it was dryer up by the patio near some bushes and a new pathway which cried out for papaver, dry poor soil & lots of sun. Bought 3 Princess Victoria Louise (beautiful picture Chelone!! just what I had in mind) 1 promptly died, other 2 grew slowwwwwly, 1 finally bloomed and it was orange. Anyway, dug out the orange, planted some white Royal Weddings, since I couldn't locate any more Princess Victoria Louise. They are growing extemely slowwwwwly, like 2 leaves a year. Bought 3 more, this time I could only find Salmon Glow, which won't work with rich pink, so the race is on - the bed will be whatever color blooms first & best and I'll trash the rest. Anyway, here is another 3rd year plant & it had better bloom, and please no more orange.

Even in zone 4, Oriental poppies are up and fairly good sized already. The image feature on Google has some nice photos of Oriental poppy seedlings and even better pictures if you Google the images for Oriental poppy leaves. It isn't inconceiveable that you got a bad batch of plants - even the most reputable mail order outfit isn't immune from having some failures - or that you may have suffocated them with a topdress of compost in the event you put on a thick layer. The literature says mulch/compost around but not directly on poppies. But in any case, they should have broken ground in your zone quite a while ago.

I simply sprinkle the seed over the snow on this bed in early March. I never cover the seed at all; even if there's no snow. Once the bed thaws, the seeds settle into the soft soil and do their thing without any covering. It's the easiest gardening chore I have to do during the year. After the poppies go by, I put in Cosmos, but there's about a 2-week lag when the bed looks completely horrendous while I wait for seed pods to mature. Then they all get ripped out and replaced with the cosmos until October (at which point I rip out the dead cosmos, freshen up the bed with new compost if needed, reset some irises that may not have bloomed because they were too deep, and let it go til March again when I start over.)

Thank you so much for the responses. I'll post the link to the collection, but in the 20 poppy collection the cultivars are: 2 Turkenlouis Poppy - Spectacular fully double flowers are brightly colored with velvety fringed and frilly petals of scarlet red. 2 Lauren's Lilac - Introduced in 2000, this poppy exhibits a beautiful soft shade of mauve lilac. 4 Royal Wedding - Large, silky shimmering white petals surround black centers making a bold statement. 4 Queen Alexander Poppy - The most beautiful of all pink poppies with extra-bright salmon-pink single blooms held aloft by wiry, pubescent stems. 4 Prince of Orange Poppy - Huge blooms the color of tangerines surrounded by light green foliage. Wonderful satiny texture and long-lasting garden flair. 4 Brilliant Poppy - Wildfire red blooms with prominent black markings that will make you sigh with admiration. The mailer says shipped for proper fall planting time which according to their website starts Sept 14th, so I am assuming they would have to be dormant by then, wouldn't they? If y'all think these cultivars are worthwhile I might go for it. I'll look for some local deals as well. Dtd I'd take you up on your offer, just to be able to come see your gardens, but road trips with my two little kids (2yo and 5 yo) generally aren't relaxing endeavors. Maybe when they are bigger and I don't feel guilty about leaving them with hubby for extended periods of time. Thanks again. Right now, I am leaning in favor of trying it, but am happy to hear any other thoughts! Lisa Here is a link that might be useful: Spring Hill Poppies