Kia hora te manno
Kia whakapapa paumamu te moana
Kia tere te Karohirohi

May the calm be widespread
May the sea glisten like the greenstone
And may the glimmer of summer dance across your pathways

Thursday, July 01, 2010

A QUESTION ABOUT POPPIES

I Just love the color of this one, growing in a friend's garden. I plan on taking a couple of the seed pods, so there will be some of these beauties in my garden.
Is it correct that the best time to sprinkle the seed, is in the fall?

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Yes, but I have also done it in very early spring. But remember it cannot be covered at all.... no mulch and it has to get light. That was my problem this year, they reseeded then died out early because the other plants grew over them and shaded them out. These are wonderful, love the purple.

Joseph said...

You climate is radically different than mine, so I'm not totally sure, but here in the midwest where it goes from cold to hot pretty quick, the best poppies come from seeds sown very late fall or very very early spring -- that way they sprout early and have a chance to get some growth on them before the heat tells them to flower.

Unknown said...

Sprinkle them as the seasons change from warm to cool. During the cool season they will put up a little rosette while establishing their roots. When they are ready, the top part will shoot up and award you the flowers. If you wait until the cold season is over into the warm season they may not have enough time to establish a good root system for larger plants and blooms.

Joyce said...

Jennifer these are gorgeous! I'm glad you ask this question too. I have alot different seed and needed to know when to throw down. Thanks and good luck with yours.

Alison said...

I direct sowed perennial poppies early this spring right in the spot they were going, and then put a cloche made of a milk jug top over them. I cut some diamond-shaped holes in it to let in the rain, and they sprouted like gangbusters! I'm going to do the same thing next spring with my annual poppy seeds.

Jennifer AKA keewee said...

Thank you everyone for all the tips on how to grow poppies. All the information is very useful.

JGH said...

Love the color of these! I've never had very good luck with poppies - or so I thought until this year when some sprang up from last summer's sowing (i'm guessing, since I didn't sow any this year!) So I'm guessing fall might be okay, too.