poppies

[Leadlotus]

i have beautiful orange poppies how ever after a couple of days the flower wilts about six inches below the flower head. Is this just the weight of the flower or is something else causing it? Thanks

[Leadlotus]

[goodlife]

Weight of the flower should not be the issue..but it is possible something has damaged the stem. As the poppies are attracting lot of bees, it is possible that birds with lot of young ones to feed have taken interested of the insects. Have you seen any birds landing on the flowers and perharps damageing the stems with their weight? Has it happened just some of the the flowers or all of them?..is there any other poppies with similar damage?

[Leadlotus]

As all of the poppies flower they wilt ,the first three have. I havent seen any birds at the flowers, but i have found about half a dozen snails inside the poppy head. I have also noticed where the stem bends over that the stem has turned black. Thanks for your reply

[star]

The weight of the recent rain has bent my poppy heads over, same with the scabious. None of the stems have blackened though.

[Debs]

I moved some stray poppy seedlings out of my veg border, put them straight into a pot, watered them & they thanked me

by wilting so badly that I don't think they will recover

Any ideas

Debs ???

[Kleftiwallah]

We have a poppy that comes up each year, we never planted it.  A lovely lilak colour, a double with a raggedy edge to the leaves.   

Cheers,    Tony.

[saddad]

Sounds like a "Somniferum".... no trying the naughty stuff...  ::)

[Debs]

Well, Well!!

Poppies that wilted badly  & looked deathly have resurrected themselves and starting to look healthy again!!
. . . only took them a month to do so ;D

Debs

[irridium]

was collecting the heads of them earlier and found to my chagrin that the snails have been eating them!!! :o although i do have enough for myself, but wanted to collect them to do a bit of guerilla gardening wherever i went out (also save foxglove for the same reason too).

one question i'd like to ask - is it possible to get fresh seed to germinate to flower this year?