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| PAPAVER SOMNIFERUM, A FRINGED FORM GROWING IN LAST YEARS GARDEN – I AM SOWING THESE THIS WEEKEND. |
As the popularity grows with seldom-grown annuals – the sort rarely found in garden centers, and those so essential in creating a more authentic and rarely seed ‘cottage garden’, our skill in learning how to master growing such annuals ourselves, has risen. Take poppies for example. I have fond memories of poppies, for as a child, my mothers’ gardens here at the old homestead large clumps of Papaver orientale, the omnipresent orange and black Oriental Poppy so common in old, New England gardens.
Nothing special, botanically speaking but still pretty. Still, these are not the poppies many new gardeners envision when they think about growing poppies. Poppies are back, at least from a style perspective, but the truth is, they are not particularly easy to grow, and there is little reference out there for beginners. I’ve been spying poor advice or generalized information on some sites and blogs, so although I am not a poppy expert, I have grown many species and types of poppies over the past 40 years, so maybe it’s time for a Poppy 101 refresher course.
Visually, poppies appear similar, at least the flowers do. Thin, tissue paper thin petals, bright colors, a tuft or tassle of stamens, and usually a significant seed pod. Basic poppy form – but without going into great detail, there are some basic poppy facts that you should know. With over 100 species known, only a dozen or two are grown commercially. We owe much to the Papaver family, most notably morphine, Opium, Codeine and of course, poppy seed bagels. But beyond that, they can make striking flowers.
If you are a new gardener, I will make some assumptions – when you envision growing poppies, the stiff stemmed Oriental poppies with prickly leaves and stems are not what you are thinking of – most likely, new gardeners imagine fields of poppies, with thin, wirey stems and pastel or coral flowers, or large, flouncy tissue-paper blossoms on wirey stems, often with gracefully nodding buds in English borders or in cottage gardens. You might also think of meadows of poppies, red specs in a French painting, but most likely, you are not envisioning bright cinnabar orange and black oriental poppies – eew. Too harsh. So, some basic Poppy 101 information.
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| PAPAVER NUDICAULE – ICELAND POPPIES |
Papaver nudicaule – Icelandic Poppies
The poppies you see sold in garden centers in 4 inch pots that come in colors like yellow, white, pink and orange on wirey stems are Icelandic Poppies. Not easy from seed, these are best purchased in the early spring, and in most gardens in zone 5, they will bloom until the weather gets hot ( which means about 4 weeks of bloom here in Massachusetts, and then, they are gone.
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| PAPAVER SOMNIFERUM |
Papaver somniferum
Most people want to grow perhaps the most beautiful poppy – the ‘Bread Poppy’ or ‘Opium Poppy’ – Papaver somniferum, or more commonly now sold by seed catalogs as P. paeoniflorum to avoid legal issues due to some restricting sales due to the amount of opiates in this species. Properly, this group should be called Papaver Paeoniflorum Group, with some varieties referred to as P. lacinatum, since they can have flowers that are fringed. The large flowers on this magnificent yet short-lived plant look exactly like tissue paper pom poms. The colors are gentle, encompassing the full range of pinks, with some dark maroon, almost black, and tea-stained colors like beige, buff pink and striped fringed varieties.
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| PAPAVER RHOEAS |
Papaver rhoeas – Corn Poppy, or Flanders Field Poppy
Think -Claude Monet, Camille Corot or red Flanders poppies in the vintage travel posters of France, Italy and Spain. These lovely wind poppies of the meadows and farm fields of Europe are familiar to everyone. Now found in wild-flower seed mixes in the US, this is truly a European wild flower, often seen in grass fields throughout much of Europe. In the home garden, like many poppies, P. rhoeas are best is sown in situ, and carefully thinned to about 4 inches apart. But these are odd plants, ones which require grass or neighbors close by to help hold them erect. In Europe. these were once frequently seen in wheat fields but with the introduction and popular use of herbicides like Round-Up, they are becoming a rare site.
This is the poppy that after WWI, was often seen represented as little red crepe paper flowers to commemorate Memorial Day, and the red seen in the battlefields. The legend is that after the war, the battle fields were red with corn poppies, due to the fact that heavy artillery had disturbed seed hidden deep in the soil, where it laid dormant for years. Seed can be sown in autumn in mild areas, or in early spring. Not as impressive as Opium poppies, these are best used in mixed planting, often in rock gardens, or in patched in a perennial border. Results are rarely what you imagine them to be, unless you live in the North West, or in cool, northern states, most every poppy beyond Oriental Poppies or P. somniferum, will sulk.
Shirley Poppy
Bred from the P. rhoeas above, the story goes like this – In 1889, Reverend W. Wilkes discovered an odd single specimen in a field of red and black Flanders Poppies growing in a village in England named Shirley – he found a blossom with a white center, which he carefully bred through selection into a fantastic color mix with pastels and brights. Coral, pink, raspberry, peach, grey and ivory poppies were soon available. Then, double forms appeared and the rest is history.
Cedric Morris also played around with P. rhoeas which resulted in a very nice strain now sold as Papaver ‘Sir Cedric Morris’. With a palette built out of the palest colors, this strain is still available in many seed catalogs, but I can never seem to find it, as it is often sold out. This is THE strain for strange yet lovely smokey greys, muddy mauve and grayish lavender. A strain that can almost substitute for this hard to find mix, is ‘Mother of Pearl’.If you re lucky, these will self sow, but that is a rare occurrence in my garden, so I sow late in the autumn if I can remember to order the seed early in the spring and hold on to it!
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| PAPAVER COMMUTATUM photo by this person, myu myu. |
| Papaver commutatum – The Lady Bird Poppy, and sometimes known as the ‘Flanders Poppy’ |
Grown for nearly 100 years in gardens, this species was discovered in 1876 by William Thompson, one of the original founders of the British seed company Tompson & Morgan. If you love red poppies, this is the reddest. Native to Iran, Turkey and Russia, this poppy so closely resembles P. rhoeas, the Flanders poppy, that many people confuse the two. Most gardeners dislike red poppies in typical borders and plantings, but prefer them in meadow mixes, with spots of red dot a grassy meadow, which is indeed where these often loom most natural. Not very hardy, even though this poppy comes from cold areas, this is best grown in cooler areas with mild winters.
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| THE ORIENTAL POPPY, PAPAVER ORIENTALE |
Some plants in our garden are over 80 years old. Plants are best purchased as young perennials, or grown from seed and carefully planted out where plants will last a lifetime if they are never moved. Seed can be stubborn, but if you purchase pre-chilled seed ( from Jelitto Seed in Germany – you will have more plants that you will need). Never order plants from the value catalogs, or anywhere that will see bareroot plants, for these will never be as robust as those grown in pots. These will only bloom once- for a week in May, but generally at the same time as Peonies.
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| PAPAVER RUPIFRAGUM |
Papaver rupifragum – Orange Feathers
When I told Joe about this post last night while we were driving to the market, he looked up from checking Facebook on his phone to add ( which her rarely does) ” Don’t forget to mention that little orange poppy that grows at the end of the stone walk”. For what ever reason, we have a clump of P. rupifragum that came up in our stone walk. right in the gravel ( probably a self seeded plant from the alpine garden) but it’s true – this little sweetie is a favorite of ours. A most unusual color, and quire unfriendly from a color palette perspective, but it blooms and blooms, so we can’t help but love it. Order seed from Jelitto seeds. Sow in the rock garden in well raked gravelly soil, plants will be small but sturdy and long lived.
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| PAPAVER ALPINUM |
Papaver alpinum – Alpine Poppy
When ever we go hiking in the Dolomites of Italy, in the Alps, we see this beautiful yellow poppy in bloom. A June bloomer ( sometimes July at higher elevations) this sweet yellow, small and truly perennial miniature best for rock gardens, and another one of my favorite poppies. Delicate, small and sweet. These bloom in white or yellow.
HOW TO GROW POPPIES
SOURCES
Swallowtail Garden – Shirley Poppies
Thompson & Morgan – P. somniferum, P. paeoniflorum group, P. rhoeas, Iceland Poppies
Johnny’s Selected Seeds – P. somniferum, P. paeoniflorum group
Jelitto Seeds – P. nudicale pre-chilled seed, P. rhoeas species form
Pretty much all of the California coast is the perfect climate for all the annual poppies. Papaver somniferum planted out in winter become multi branched shrubs in spring covered in flowers. I couldn't believe my eyes the first time I saw one here. I planted a few in February I just hope we get some more rain and cooler weather so they can reach their potential.
Papaver commutatum is another winner here growing a few feet across and covered with 30 or more flowers at a time and blooming for months.
The only ones we can't reliably grow are the oriental type which I believe require a longer period of winter chill.
Anyway very cool post. I love them all and think they are great companion plants to plant in amongst other cottage garden type plants.
Thanks Kaveh, you are so lucky to first, be able to grow all of these, and second, because you are close to Annies Annuals! Your blog is why I ordered from her this year – the plants just came in, and I was so blown away that I just placed another order for two boxes more! I can't believe that I am ordering annuals, but here in New England, pre-started annuals of some species like those that grow in cool California can only be grown between late March and the end of May, so we need to order them somewhat grown.
It really lovely and pretty flowers.Different colour of flowers plants are so beautiful look in the gardens.To show flower in the article look awesome.
Glad to be an enabler! Not that you need much help in that department!
My friend Dave grew P. commutatum in Connecticut and said it did really well for him. I'm not sure if it becomes quite the beast it does out here but that is one you may have particular luck with. I believe he said it lasted quite a while even on the east coast which is nice compared to the more ephemeral poppies.
Sadly the weather has not been kind so far to most of my California annuals but we are supposed to get some rain this weekend so maybe there is hope for them. The Mediterranean and S. African annuals are looking pretty good though.
Be sure to go through Annie's entire catalog and put things you like on your wish list. That way they will send you an email when those plants become available and you can order even more! 🙂
Great to hear, Kaveh – about the fact that Annie's Annuals does ping you when you click on the wish list items. I never bothered, but I secretly wanted to!
A nice primer. The first P. somniferums are blooming here now. Our Deep South climate calls for slightly different methods.
We live in the Florida panhandle, can we grow poppies here? I love them. I would appreciate an answer. Thank you.
Matt: I'd like to plant an assortment of poppy seeds in my cottage garden in Hull, MA. Do I have to wait until spring or can I plant them now?
In New England I have had great success with P. Setigerum; they are weed-like in their hardiness and pop right up year-after-year.
Here in Massachusetts I can tell you that P. setigerum grows with weed-like vigor, and comes up reliably year-after-year
My garden is between zone 5 and 6A. The only place I get a fair amount of sun is on my deck. Can poppies grow in pots? Would they be alright with just afternoon sun?
Thank you for your well-written article.
Thanks so much for this information. I live in Zine 7 in NC and ordered poppies from Brecks last year. They were planted in the fall and now I am struggling with these plants. The flowers are rotting before actually blooming, they are much larger than I thought so the have become very crowded with my other plants. So with this info I've learned they don't like the fertilizer and the rain that we've had. I'll just let them alone and then decide what to do later in the season. I did have one huge orange flower but it only lasted one day, which was disappointing. I'm a relatively new Gardner and like planting flowers that I can cut to have in my house. These poppies are more trouble than I've bargained for. But, we'll see! Thanks!
I'm also wondering if I'll have any success growing poppies (starting them in containers) in late June in zone 7A (Martha's Vineyard). My daughter brought me poppy pods (no one has mentioned pods?) from Bavaria (loved the packaging!)that we think are the California poppy type.
I found a Papaver variety along the Canadian Pacific railroad tracks in BC Canada I call "Railroad Red". It's blooms last and are like giant Carnations! I've given the seed away inside BC and Alberta, but unfortunately mailing seed into the USA is now a big no-no. Thompson & Morgan has such a huge demand in Europe for their seeds we no long get them either, even though their distributor still has them on their website. I wish I could upload a photo of these beauties!!
For the record, it’s only illegal to grow opium poppies in the US if they are grown with the intention of producing opium or heroin, and very few home growers are going to have enough plants to fall under suspicion. (A man not too far from me was arrested this year for that crime, but they seized something like 4,000 plants from his property, not a mixed border’s worth.) It’s a silly law anyway, as the amount of poppies one would have to grow to produce any appreciable amount of drug is ludicrous, this is not my dad’s stand of pot we’re talking about here.
This Halloween, I’m going to tell my children the horrifying tale of the day in 1987 when the DEA descended on Monticello, and threatened staff with arrest and prosecution if they did not rid the estate of poppies; said staff, not being paid enough to deal with that crap, destroyed stands of p. sominferum that had been self-seeding since Jefferson’s time. Employees were so frightened they burned gift shop T-shirts, because they were silk-screened with images of the poppies.
I expect to see more hysteria with the rise of “unwashed poppy seed tea”, which has actually killed a few people. I was confused about this until I started doing research on alkaloid content and growing poppies for breadseed, and learned that when grown for culinary seed, it’s important to not bruise or damage the ripening pod in any way, or else you can cause the seeds to be contaminated with alkaloid-containing latex. My theory is that growers in opium regions are harvesting and selling the seeds from pods that have been scored to harvest the latex. Not only does that allow the latex to dope up the seeds, but they also use cultivars with MUCH higher alkaloid contents than anything the home grower will find (although Lauren’s Grape and Queen’s Poppy are pretty darn high).
Anyway. Every time I post a picture of my Oriental or Shirley poppies on social media, I am inevitably informed that my garden is felonious.
Oh God. the horror stories. The way I see it – there is so much heroin in my neighborhood already that my pathetic poppies are pretty safe! This year we grew 8 pot plants too (maybe I’m nearing that age?) but we don’t smoke. Just for Christmas gifts, we say. Half of it is CBD strains (‘Lifter’, which I may try becaise I would end up in the emergency room if I smoked real THC pot. Both are legal here in Mass anyway – and I bought the seedlings in Vermont at a large retail nursery where they were being sold next to the heirloom tomatoes. Now that it’s legal, it’s not as fun to grow anymore! I would never dare use my own poppy seeds, but yes – people are going to be people and do stupid things.Opium straw was a ‘thing’ at one time (read about it in an old book, but again, I’m only going to save that info for our apocalypse plan (or for after the election).