WOW....so very pretty. My husband doesn't want me planting it at this house, at our last house they were coming up in our lawn....
I have been tempted to plant some Shirley Poppies. Will it work if I just scatter the seed where I want it in the late fall? A friend said I could do this.
I have a few poppies here but nothing like the amount of beauties you have. I did purchase some red 'Ladybirds' from the Royal Highland Show a few years ago. Sadly they've since flowered salmon pink with the black centre marking instead of the red they were when I bought them. To say I was disappointed is an understatement as the pink just don't pop the way the red would have done at the back of my pond. Did you sow yours from seed are did you buy them as plants? If they are from seed then I may invest in some and, hopefully, get the colours I actually want. Also do you know the varieties of the two white ones in your photographs? I'd love to have them here.
As with many things in our garden the labels are long gone,sorry. Most of the ones we have now are self sown seedlings, but the trouble is that they produce so many millions of seeds that sowing, growing on and waiting for flowers is too much. And if you plant them in a nursery bed to see what colour you get, you end up with a whole bed of red ones which are almost impossible to get rid of. Picture 4 is of a clump we failed to remove 20 years ago from a nursery bed. Shirely poppies are hardy annuals which may be fall sown where you want them to flower. They do not transplant well. The Ladybird red poppy with the black markings is also an annual and you would need to collect and sow every year. The second white fringed one could be Miss Piggy. The other one could be Perry's White
Thanks for the info Eric. I will keep an eye out for the Miss Piggy and the Perry's white. I had collected the seeds from the Ladybird but they never came back as the red I was expecting. Oh well the pink ones seem to like where they are so I'll hang onto them for the time being.
Look out for the new American hybrids of P.orientalis. They are shorter growing and the flowers more substantial than the older varieties.
I threw some red poppy seed into one of my perennial beds 10 years ago. They keep reseeding. They don't really take over as the foliage dies back with the summer heat. I have tired of them however & am doing what I can to discourage them. The stalks are not thick like store bought poppies, rather they are thin & wiry & the flowers are smaller. The kind of plant you would put in a wildflower bed.
Very interesting! I actually never got to see poppies growing big enough to flower like that! We here only get poppy seeds from the grocery stores (to be used in baking). Never could actually taste anything special in them, so my choice for this is always sesame seeds and nigella sativa seeds... However I did plant a few poppy seeds from the grocery stores in my childhood. But when they were only an inch tall, my family told me that growing them in the city is illegal over here - As this is the plant from which raw opium is extracted. So to avoid a potentially serious criminal charge of being labeled as a narcotic cultivator, (which actually carried some jail time, as well as a few public lashings) - Was the reason why I quickly destroyed them all... Later I realized that they would have died anyway before reaching maturity, as they cannot handle our mercilessly hot climate of southern Pakistan's summer months. This actually was and still is the major cash crop of Afghanistan, along with Cannabis (which also is just as illegal to grow in any Pakistani city). But the climate and lack of proper law enforcement over in Afghanistan is perfect for both crops to thrive... However at the time I was growing poppy, I became too worried that I may accidentally be doing something seriously illegal. Which is why I strongly advise to please check your own local laws, if it indeed is legal to grow as an ornamental garden plant or not. Otherwise the price we may end up paying for growing such plants can be too high... There are actually some very detailed videos over the internet (which can be viewed for free) - In which everything is taught when it comes to extracting raw opium form poppy buds. All one needs is a knife to make cuts on the buds and also to scrape off the raw opium which oozes out. So those who want to see it can easily search for it at their own risk. But I'm not going to put the links here, as I don't want our GardenStew to be even remotely associated with that kind of activity... Sorry to sound like an alarmist, but in my country growing this in your garden will lead to actual jail time. Which is why I urge cation - The plant and flowers however do look lovely!
Is it still illegal to plants them where you are? I am surprised that kind of law wood exist on these flowers. Also the pictures look beautiful! Thanks for sharing the pictures!
Yes it is a very serious offence over here. So if caught, they really will throw the book at you for growing these. Because getting raw opium out of these plants is extremely easy. People cut a few shallow slits on the buds with the help of the knife, and so from this oozes out raw opium - Which addicts often smoke as it is, while some refine it by other processes (what too are very easy to do in any ordinary kitchen). After which it becomes easy to inject into the bloodstream even... Really horrible stuff if you ask me, as first it ruins one's health (as one becomes totally dependent upon it), after which it ruins one's life (as no addict can never hold a steady job). And finally it ruins a person's name and reputation for all time too (along with all his or her relatives too), specially when the police come knocking at the door... So growing this, or growing marijuana - Is perhaps the quickest way to put anyone behind bars, (authorities really do have a zero tolerance attitude when it comes to such "recreational" drug use and/or cultivation)... In fact if one is traveling to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with such a thing stashed in their luggage, or even having it's seeds to gorw over there - Then it's an instant death sentence for them, while a lifetime of jail in the UAE... So compared to them, I guess we in Pakistan are somewhat lenient as we only put someone in jail for about 10 years for such an offence...
Papaver orientale (Oriental Poppy) is a common garden Poppy and what you typically find in garden centers. I can grow them for part of one season but they do not last through the summer and certainly do not return. Papaver somniferum is the opium poppy.
