So many Poppies (Papavers) - NOT Puppies ;)

[veggiechicken]

Anyone know anything about poppies?

I've been going through my flower seeds, to decide which to grow next year.
I lurve Poppies - so bright and cheerful - but there are so many different types that I don't know which to sow

Here are some :-

Icelandic - perennial
Orientale - perennial
Spanish (Rupifragum) - perennial
Welsh (Cambricum) aka Meconopsis Cambrica - perennial
Bracteatum - perennial

Californian (Eschscholzia californica) - annual
Shirley & Flanders (Rhoeas) - annual
Somniferum (Opium) - annual
Paeoniflorum aka Somniferum var. Paeoniflorum - annual
Laciniatum (sub type of Somniferum) - annual
Commutatum (Ladybird) - annual
Glaucum (Tulip poppy) - annual


Please tell me which ones you grow and recommend. Any tips appreciated.
Thanks

[Lisasbolt]

Just throw them all in and have a beautiful poppy bed. The best ones are that grow wild all over

p.s go for the Spanish ones if not

[Nicos]

Flanders poppy...just because...

[veggiechicken]

Apparently, Shirley poppies have been bred from the cornfield (Flanders) poppy .
I will definitely be sowing the Flanders poppies but 'd like to keep them apart from the coloured ones.

How to grow: Shirley poppies - Telegraph

[Nicos]

We have the Flanders poppies all over the place here..it never ceases to amaze me where they pop up...and how tiny they can be, sometimes as small as your little finger nail.

I have one small area growing the beautiful yellow Welsh poppies around a granite staircase n the North side of the house.
Every year they pop up and put a smile on my face.
The original one had self seeded into a pot I brought over from the UK.

[veggiechicken]

I think Poppies have a life of their own. Whenever I try to grow them from seed, its a failure, but some amazing poppies have appeared from nowhere. They must be free spirits, dislike being pampered, just want to grow where it suits them.
Maybe that's why I like them so much

[Nicos]

Spot on...the only ones I know I can grow are the perennial ones.
As you say , the rest are free spirits .
I've sprinkled so many seeds over the years and most haven't grown...yet.

According to Monty Don, the seeds are viable for at least a centuary....I'm half hoping that one day I'll wake up to find my house is surrounded by a tide of various colours of poppies
One can live in hope eh?

Yup...I too adore poppies!

[WendyC]

Oh dear I thought not again! I read the title as puppies. .

[veggiechicken]

After I'd written it - I misread it too
Papavers sounds a bit pretentious

[Guest]

I wouldn't be able to choose. The varieties are so vast. After I dug the veg patch I had pink opium poppies appear everywhere, so big and blousy but then you get the field poppies that seem so delicate. I do feel bad I had never heard of welsh poppies until I joined the vine Mind you remembering that any you sow are likely to be awkward and not grow you might as well sow all of them (sown ones don't behave for me either)

[mothhawk]

Anyone know anything about poppies?

I've been going through my flower seeds, to decide which to grow next year.
I lurve Poppies - so bright and cheerful - but there are so many different types that I don't know which to sow

Here are some :-
Californian
Icelandic (perennial)
Oriental
Paeoniflorum
Shirley (Rhoeas)
Somniferum
Commutatum
Glaucum
Spanish (Rupifragum)
Welsh (Cambricum)

Please tell me which ones you grow and recommend. Any tips appreciated.
Thanks

It's not like you to balk at sowing 30 pots of the same seed species VC; sow the lot or are you at last running out of space in all your greenhouses?

[Bal]

Poppies along with roses are my favourite flower. I too have tried again and again to grow them from seed which I have very carefully harvested ( stolen) from anywhere I see them. Never had one come up. Had a wild opium poppy come up in the middle of the gravel drive last year. I cordoned it off and collected the seed after it had flowered. I'm tempted to sow them back on to them drive as it was happy there, but I thinkOH might object at not being able to park on his own drive.

[scarey55]

I love poppies too. My own personal favourites are the really blousy opium types, having said that, you can't beat a lovely bright and sunny clump of California poppies either

Whatever you decide, I'm sure they will be beautiful and give you months of pleasure.

[Nicos]

Mine seem to self seed in the gravel driveway too.
Maybe that is the answer fir all of us failing with growing them from seed???????

Actually- that's an idea...rather than messing about with mulching, maybe my new bed should be gravel and a mass of poppies???

[DannyK]

I get a lot of opium poppies that come up by themselves. What's good are the odd peony flowered ones.