It's the first year my oriental poppies have bloomed and the first few flowers have gone over - do i deadhead them or leave the seed pods? Will deadheading make more flowers come?
I collect the seeds and then broadcast them :)
Dried seed heads go well in a dried flower arrangement as well, or the seeds on home baked bread :D
It was my first year last year of growing these and I was disappointed in them so just left them but this year they are truly beautiful. I took some photo's of them yesterday. So, I would say you don't dead head them, mine are covered in buds waiting to burst forth.
Sinbad
I've just managed to put a couple of photo's in my gallery of them.I am so proud of them :)
Sinbad
I dead head mine much better to take root cuttings,this is Petty's plum.
Beautiful
I believe the quicker you dead head, the more flowers you will encourage.
Quote from: betula on May 21, 2008, 13:40:14
I collect the seeds and then broadcast them :)
Do you plant them the same year or wait for next Spring? I'm still waiting anxiously for buds and flowers on mine.
I took a few from the seed swap this week - but maybe its too late for this year? Better to plant them now, in the autumn or next spring?
If you follow the course of nature, letting the seeds dry on the plant then when they rattle, take the seed head off and use it as a salt cellar to scatter the seeds ;)
When I looked at my poppies today, where most of the petals had dropped off of one of the flower's a load of what I thought seeds fell out. They reminded me of marigold seeds, so as it hadn't had time to dry out what were these?
Sinbad
Oooh i didn't think of using the seeds on bread. Sinbad7 & froglegs your pics are beautiful !
I've had them 3 years - the first year they looked healthy but no flowers, last year I moved them and no flowers, so i'm really happy they're blooming now !
I think the answer depends on what you want for next year. I have loads of self-set opuim poppies every year; I pull out the wishy-washy ones, and encourage the better colours to seed.