where to get oriental poppies?
John Kuhn
4 years ago
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dbarron
4 years agoRelated Discussions
Too late in zone 5 for Oriental Poppies?
Comments (6)They tend to flower in the first spring after their first growing year. So that's a full year for oriental poppies sown in the Spring, but only about 6 - 8 months for those sown in late summer/early fall. Depending on how well your fall sown seeds grew they may flower this year. And those from the bare roots are very likely to flower this spring. Lynda...See Moreoriental poppies
Comments (9)I bought a poppie wildflower seed mix and planted it in our roadside ditch on bare, unimproved mostly clay soil left exposed when the driveway was put in back in 1998 before we built the house. I have never tried the opium or breadseed poppies (Paper somniferum). Within a couple of months of scattering that seed mix and watering it (much less water than they said to give the mix because at that point we were only up here on weekends), I had a beautiful mix of poppies, including the corn poppies (papaver rhoeas) in red, pink and white (singles and doubles) and the Oriental Poppies (Papaver orientale). They were spectactular the first year and ever more spectacular the second year. After the second year they began to decline. Since they aren't supposed to do well in clay soil, I was probably lucky to get two good years out of them as they were in some pretty awful soil. However, they haven't gone completely away. The shirley poppies have reseeded themselves all over. The oriental poppies have not. Here's some of the places they popped up this year: In the gravel driveway down front by the road near where they were originally planted in the ditch. These are small this year due to lack of rainfall--only 4" to 6" tall and the flowers are smaller than usual too. In the ditch across the street from us. In the middle of the road in a small crack in the road. In the driveway beside my veggie garden, about 100' from where they were originally planted. In the south side of the veggie garden near the driveway in heavy soil soil that has been amended with compost and manure, but still remains very clay-ey. In the flower border on the north side of the garden which is largely unimproved clay. In the middle of the bermuda grass in my front yard. In the shrub border on the south side of my house, 300 feet from where they were originally planted. They are in the worst clay there. Didn't come up in the better improved clay. Doesn't make sense. In the extremely thick, horrible clay that surrounds my in-ground tornado shelter. I can't get anything but weeds and bermuda to grow in this soil, but it is covered in red poppies. They come back every year in this area and are very heavy this year, and quite tall, despite the lack of rainfall. In the wetter clay soil on the edge of my water garden. In the butterfly bed outside the northwest corner of my house. In a "waste area" about 150 feet behind my house where erosion has left cuts in the soil and uneven terrain that is hard to mow. This is their first year to pop up here. In the middle of my wildflower meadow area between the house and the woods. Only a few popped up here and couple of years ago, and there's only a couple of plants this year. The foliage ususally appears in April (but as early as late Feb. some years) and the flowers bloom in April/May. I deadhead them every now and then to extend the bloom period. In years with lots of rainfall they will sometimes keep blooming until mid-June. I haven't had as much luck with California poppies, which are smaller and get crowded out of my borders by more aggressive flowers that like our heat more. The first year I planted them, though, when there was nothing else around them, they were gorgeous. I had the tangerine-orange ones. I have tried Oriental poppies a couple of times since I bought that poppie seed mix, and they just didn't do well in my clay. I have grown a poppy seed mix I got from Renee's Garden Seeds that had very full poppies that looked like carnations. I planted them about 6 years ago. Their foliage is bigger and bolder than that of the other poppies I've grown. They get 2 or 3 feet tall and have only a few flowers, but the flowers they do have are gorgeous. They also did quite well for couple of years and then went away. They did bloom later than the red poppies--probably in the very late May to July timeframe. This year 2 of these plants popped up in my shrub bed and I have left them there to see if they will bloom. A friend of mine who has grown poppies for years says they do best if they are in soil that gets tilled or turned over every year. She thinks that if I were to rototill the soil in my ditch where I originally planted the poppy mix, either in the late winter or early spring, I would get a huge amount of poppies from the newly-exposed seed. I might try that next year. I just think of my poppies as "wildflowers" that will bloom for a little while and then go away. I enjoy them while they last, but know that they will only last a month or two. Dawn...See MoreGetting rid of oriental poppies
Comments (13)I haven't had time to reply here--been having too much fun potting things up for the swap! But if you're gonna be digging in there, Sam, there's something you need to know! At the Spring Swap, I'm planning to show people how to propagate Oriental poppies from ROOT CUTTINGS! I'll be using root pieces that are about an inch long---so---in other words, when you're digging around the poppies, ANY little pieces of root that are broken off are going to rematerialize as NEW, big, beautiful plants! Like the Magic Broom in Fantasia, it multiplies! Just exactly what you DON'T want! Since you sprayed them with Roundup, I recommend you wait at least another full week to determine what has and has not been effected/knocked down/killed before you attempt to dig any to give away. Roundup takes a while to get in thru the foliage to the roots to have any effect, and after just one week, there's still stuff going on that you can't see yet. Also, being this early in spring, I'm guessing that there are a lot of individual plants that haven't even put in an appearance yet, and if they didn't have any foliage yet, the Roundup won't effect them at all. When you see plants that are looking strong and healthy in a couple weeks, you should be safe digging to give away. Now back to the "Magic Roots!" When you're planning to try to dig the plants/roots to give some away, I recommend you water the area VERY thoroughly 24 to 48 hours before you plan to start digging. That should help at least some in letting you dig/pull the roots out in whole, or at least larger, pieces, since the more small pieces you leave in there, the more plants you're gonna get. You need to water far enough ahead that you don't wind up trying to dig in mud. Ideally the soil would be soft enough to break up easily, more or less "falling" off of the roots! (But if you have typical Colorado clay, "ideally" probably isn't gonna happen!) But for trying to get rid of them, because of the problem with the multiplying roots, I think your best bet is to keep spraying them! Do everything you can to get them actively growing to get as much foliage as possible, and then spray, hitting ALL of the foliage, and leave them sit for 2-3 weeks---and repeat! (If you happen to have any of them growing into a grass/lawn area, Weed-B-Gon will work on the poppies the same as Roundup, but without killing the grass.) And remember that they'll go dormant as soon as it starts to get hot out, so do as much as you can before "summer" gets here! They usually re-grow some foliage when it cools again in fall, and you could continue your "eradication project" then! And as everybody else has said, be sure if any of them bloom, you don't leave the seedheads on long enough to drop seed! Do you know about our Spring Swap? This one is gonna be in Thornton, on the north end of the Metro area, so it's not too far away from you! If you should decide to come, I'd love a few of the double orange roots to use in my propagation demo! :-) Kinda funny how one person's Trash is another person's Treasure! I'll link the swap thread below so you can find out more in case you haven't seen it yet! Welcome to RMG, Skybird Here is a link that might be useful: Spring Swap - 2011...See MoreAdvice for my oriental poppies
Comments (3)Oriental poppies are more forgiving of transplanting than most other poppies (although all can be moved if done when tiny). If the seed merchants were more generous, direct sowing is a perfectly good option but I always prefer to sow seeds in 5inch deep pots and separate the seedlings as soon as the first true leaves are out....See Moregardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
4 years agokatob Z6ish, NE Pa
4 years agoJohn Kuhn
4 years agoJohn Kuhn
4 years agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
4 years agomazerolm_3a
4 years agosah67 (zone 5b - NY)
4 years agoHU-352499387
3 years ago
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gracie01 zone5 SW of Chicago