Topic: Strange purple poppy finally!

[GrannieAnnie]

After years of not being able to grow a single poppy, this year we not only have two colors dropped by birds but also some appear to have lived despite being planted by me!
Pix #1 Will it make it? Some parts looking brown and lost some leaves to aphids but soapy water (repeatedly) saved the day


Pix #2  Is this a strange looking poppy or what?  Seed came from a kind Canadian gardener.

[PurpleHeather]

lovely aren't they

[Crystalmoon]

Poppies are my favorite flowers & this one is magnificent!

Ive never had success growing them though

[Kea]

Well I'm really pleased to come across some other people who can't grow poppys. Apparently they grow like weeds for everyone else.

[Robert_Brenchley]

The opium poppies come up all over my plot, I just pull out the more insipid-looking ones and leave most of the rest.

[GrannieAnnie]

Well I'm really pleased to come across some other people who can't grow poppys. Apparently they grow like weeds for everyone else.

Yes, people would always looked at me so strangely when I'd say I couldn't grow poppies. They swore you can't get rid of them if you grow them once.

If you want to give them another try you might have success like I did starting them in pots instead of in the ground. Try  a warm spot in the house. The seed was just sprinkled on top and clear plastic wrap on top of the pot til they sprouted. They seemed to need the warmth and slight moisture.  Then I trans planted them lots of different places to see what would work, all of them well-drained sites, and put stones and gravel around the bases to prevent mud from splashing. It must have been a good Spring for growing poppies because there are several more that look like they'll bloom. We haven't had a very wet Spring which is unusual.

 I hope you have success if you try again.

[Kea]

Yes i'll try that. I can grow the oriental poppy but it's the opium ones I like the most. My Mother-in-Law gave me lots of seed and was stunned when I said it didn't grow.....it's a weed in her garden.

[cambourne7]

i bought a laura ashley poppy seed recently which had a simular picture and it was called Poppy (Paeony) Purple Passion which looks quite simular

http://www.johnsons-seeds.com/acatalog/laseeds.html

I sent some poppy seeds to someone a few fews ago and i wonder if they grew.....

[PurpleHeather]

I like experimenting and

Last year I kept one poppy seed head in a brown paper envelope. In March of this year I spread the whole lot on top of compost in  an 8 inch diameter pot. covered with about half an inch of compost

I could not count the number of little plants that came up.

Not able to separate them, I planted out a few clumps in May.

Thank you, said the slugs to all but one small clump, which they reduced only partially.

I now have one flowering poppy from this.

There will be a seed head kept for next year but I will only put a few seeds in each pot. 

I think I must have spilt one seed, in the gravel in the green house, under the bench is a poppy, just one. Not as big and lush as the survivor from the pot. Normally I pull up weeds in the green house but this one stays.

[GrannieAnnie]

Yes, Purple Heather, isn't the attrition rate disturbing! I planted a whole packet of delphinium seed and to date only 4 plants have survived. Two  bit the dust last week! One has buds now so I'm holding my breath! Same story for some other flowers I keep trying to convince they'd like our planting zone.

[Bluemoon]

Sorry, poppies grow like weeds for me too. One year we had then growing in the potato patch, they looked so lovely peeking up between the potato foliage I almost considered doing it again the next year on purpose.

[GrannieAnnie]

i bought a laura ashley poppy seed recently which had a simular picture and it was called Poppy (Paeony) Purple Passion which looks quite simular

http://www.johnsons-seeds.com/acatalog/laseeds.html

I sent some poppy seeds to someone a few fews ago and i wonder if they grew.....

Cam your inbox is full- couldn't PM you!

To whom could I mail some of this purple poppy seed to be dispersed in your seed exchange for those who want to try it? It has 5 blooms on one stalk with 2 more buds. It is probably 3 feet high. The base of it does not look pretty- gawky with dead leaves.

[cambourne7]

eak i will have a clean out in the next day or so :)

[ceres]

These are on my neighbour's overgrown plot.  They're gorgeous, I've got my eye on the seed!

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[GrannieAnnie]

Has 6 blooms open on one plant now!  Looks very similar to your plot mates' but maybe theirs has bigger petals?

[ceres]

Yes, I think yours have smaller petals and more crinkly but just fantastic.  I do love poppies!

[shirlton]

I'm being ever so patient. I really thought they would be out today

[Froglegs]

Weeds ya say!!

[GrannieAnnie]

Weeds ya say!!

  That's a beautiful stand of poppies, Frogslegs. What have you found works in front of them when they die back?  The bases of my two look horrible with dead leaves and stalk.

[cambourne7]

yes there is an allotment which has gone mad on our site which the most wonderful orange poppies which i was thinking on going over and digging the plant out :)