Poppies

I have some really nice poppies in my garden at the moment all but in the wrong places!

I have just been reading on the internet that if you cut off the head now it will encourage the plant to flower again later in the year?

But then it states that if you cut your poppy head off now you wont get seeds for next year! very confusing!

Can anyone advise me of what is the best to do?

 

I think your need to clarify what poppies these are @Apple Blossom? Are they Field poppies, Opium poppies, Icelandic poppies etc.

Sent on the go from my telephone

 

Never seen Opium poppies grow new flowers after picking them

 

@Apple Blossom if I was you I would leave the plants where they are an enjoy them for this year and just collect the seed when the flower heads dry to the brown pepper pot stage where the little holes appear under what was the flower head.

I am pretty sure that if you chop off the seed capsule or the whole stem then that will be the end of it for this year unless of course you have the small yellow and orange flowered varieties where you get multiple stems on each plant.I usually wait for the pepper pot stage then I go round and gently shake the plants to let the seeds disperse or I collect them up and put them in paper bags for sowing later.

If you take any advice from gardeners on here I am sure you will get the plants where you want them next year especially if you weed out so to speak any seedlings you find in the wrong place.

 

We have a number of the standard purple opium poppies dotted around the new garden which were very pretty this year and I've already earmarked some double white opium poppies near the roundabout and also some pinky ones in town for seed collection in a month or so

Might even sprinkle some from nearby of ours as well to appreciate next year!

 

Just chopped the seed pod off of one of mine, isn't half bitter man

 

I'm a bit of a novice on that one..... I could take some photos and post them tomorrow after work. I do have this photo of the one I am most interested in..

 

Thank you for your reply.... I really have no idea what they are, the others have pink/lilac petals and lots of buds a new one opens daily but then falls off in the evening.... such a short life.. the poppy heads look interesting.... they are just really big for where they are

 

I did that... thinking I should save the pod for seeds and it bled black!!! not very pleasant...

 

Along the grass verge near the airfield where we walk of an evening there were some lovely single flowered poppies growing one of which was a large lovely pale pink and I even got Mr Kandy to stop the car so I could take a photo of it

I have patiently been waiting for the pepper pot to dry so that I could collect the seed but the local farmer decided it was time to mow the grass verge so guess what,the Poppy has now been chopped off in its prime so no Poppy seed for me this year

 

Apple Blossom,the photo you have put up looks like the Ladybird type as I call them.Have you got a patch of growth where the leaves are serrated?I have a couple of these plants and they have multiple heads on each plant.All I do is tidy up the plants as they tend to flop as time goes on.I also leave the pepper potstickers dry out before I sprinkle the seeds round the garden.Some people say that those seed from these sort are not viable(sterile) but I have managed to get other plants to grow.

They are a lovely addition to the garden though and one red one I have in he back garden has frilly petals

 

Ah that's so sad they sound like what I have here, there are more to open, when they do I will post a photo and if it's the one, will be happy to send you a pod

 

Thank you for the info Kandy, I have only the one and to be honest it came up right in the middle of my irises, I actually thought it was a weed and nearly pulled it up... So glad I didn't. Like you said, it has flopped and no evidence of any further growth. I would really like to have a few of them in the boarders as they are so lovely and vibrant in colour

 

Hi Apple Blossom,

How big is the flower, and does it have large foliage ?
If so it could be an Oriental Poppy, Papaver Orientale, which are true perennials and will reflower later in the summer if they are dead headed.