Tips on growing Oriental Poppies

Hey

Does anyone have any tips on growing Oriental poppies? I love them!

I was looking at a couple of the(limited varieties in the garden center) seed packets and the flowering times. It says they will flower next year if planted this year. Is this for all types? I thought that poppies grow the same year?

Cheers

 

Hi Shaneoak, Some poppies are annuals...Opium poppies for e.g. Orientals are perennial so you'd have to sow really early to get them to flowering size the same year.

 

Thnaks for the reply.

Aw okay. I guess it's qite late now to plant them?

 

Hi Shane,

For the annual types you are ok for sowing the seeds now ( I have just sown some called " Ladybird " which are like the red wild poppies but have a black spot on each petal ). Indeed, you can sow them at 3/4 week intervals right up to June which will give you flowers all the way till November.

Oriental Poppies are perennials which you sow one year to flower the next and subsequent years.
I usually sow my perennial seeds around the end of May going into June for a couple of reasons......

A] there is more room as everything from Spring seed sowings/cuttings is planted out by then.
B] you are mimicking the natural timing of the plants themselves setting and dropping their own seed.
C] it gives the seedlings time to develop before planting them out in their final positions in the Autumn.

If you want them for this year you can get bare-root plants now from garden centers or Wilkinsons which just need to be planted. Or, if you wait a few months garden centers etc will be selling them as flowering plants in pots [ but these will be considerably dearer ].

 

Thank you for that information Anthony. I was looking at some of the Opium poppy varieties and they have some nice types. I think i will go for them. Do they germinate quite easily outdoors? I planted them years ago and only 2 appeared. Not sure what i did wrong! lol

Yes, i saw some Orientals in small pots at my local garden center in Harrogate. They were going for £4.50 each! So, forget that!!

 

You could always take root cuttings from them too. If you bought a plant in a garden centre and s that you liked and wanted to bulk the stock up a bit. Before you planted it removed some of the roots. I think it may be too late in the year for root cuttings though, as I've never tried to so them.

 

oh cheers. That's a good tip