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Re: Poppies (p. somniferum)

On Fri 18 Sep, Allan Day wrote:
This was a private mailing but it seems to be of general interest so
here goes.


> On Fri 18 Sep, Lee anne Hayes wrote:
> > 
> > I was interested to see your post today regarding poppies.
> > I hope you can help and give me some instruction.
> > 
> > I recently went to the health food store and bought a
> > lot of poppy seeds, called papaver somniferum.  (Bread
> > Box poppies)  I was so proud of myself to find them at
> > such a reasonable price.  The nurseries sell poppy seed
> > packets for about $ 1.79 for a tiny amount.  I paid $ .44
> > for about 1/4 cup!!
> > I live in Eastern Washington, USA, Zone 4/5 - gets down to
> > -20F here in the winter, sometimes colder.  I think I heard
> > that they should be planted in the fall.  When they
> > come up in the spring, do I need to do anything else?
> > 
> > As I have never grown them before, I would love to hear
> > from you as to what you do.  How deep to plant, etc. 
> > 
> >....
> > Lee Anne Hayes
 my reply:- 
> Papaver Somniferum is definitely the Opium Poppy. We grow it purely as
> an ornamental of course.Where they grow it as a crop probably has a
> totally different climate. I don't know for what reason your health food
> store was selling it. We have tried various methods of propogating it
> but it likes to self-seed, that is it comes up where it will from seed
> dropped the previous year and as the seed is so small there are many of
> these even from one head. We have various colours and shapes, there is
> a bright pink, usually double, a strong red which I have only seen as
> single and another one, single and double and intermediate whih varies
> between off white to a strong mauve. A neighbour had a lovely orange
> and I wanted to have some seed from him, but he suddenly got rid of
> the lot. Ugh, tidy gardeners!
> Now the strange thing is that although
> these strains are growing mixed up I have never seen any crosses. To
> keep and possibly enhance the colour balance I have been putting labels
> on the stems of those I wish to keep, in balance, and pull the others
> out ruthlessly. I have concluded that they geminate best from seed that
> drops in the fall (we call autumn) and therefore gets a cold spell,
> before germinating quite late the next spring and growing remarkably
> quickly, during which period drastic thinning is usually required. by
> all means sow, or more descriptively scatter the seeds on somewhere that
> they can lie on the surface, and next spring go over the soil with a
> small handfork removing all the weeds, then leave it alone and see what
> happens. I would expect however that what you bought would be likely to
> come up all one colour but you will have to see what happens.
> Someone has come up on the list with a remark that p. somniferum is sold
> under a 'common name',(paeony flowered) I shall check back and see
> what that is all about. Good luck, and I would be very interested in a
> report next year.
see also my submission The Full Works
-- 
Allan Day  Hereford HR2 7AU allan@crwys.demon.co.uk
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