I've never had amazing success with poppies. I have a big oriental (perennial) one which seems the easiest for me to grow in my garden. Last year I sowed some in loo rolls and plated them straight out as the cardboard biodegrade and stop root disturbance. I got a couple of nice plants.
I tried nurturing them carefully but to no avail so now I just sprinkle seeds on patches of bare earth and it works. They seem to thrive on neglect
Can you describe the best kind of bare earth to make this work? I have some hard clay, some soggy wet clay, and some fairly good (what looks like) normal brown soil (undug).
I was always told to sow them on snow, presumably are one of the seeds that need a good cold spell to get them going. Try putting a packet in the freezer for a week and then sowing them. They also like poor, freshly disturbed soil apparently. I usually just scatter them about in spring, some germinate but not loads. They quite often pop up in areas that have been freshly dug for the first time in a while though
I've never had amazing success with poppies. I have a big oriental (perennial) one which seems the easiest for me to grow in my garden. Last year I sowed some in loo rolls and plated them straight out as the cardboard biodegrade and stop root disturbance. I got a couple of nice plants.
I've never had amazing success with poppies. I have a big oriental (perennial) one which seems the easiest for me to grow in my garden. Last year I sowed some in loo rolls and plated them straight out as the cardboard biodegrade and stop root disturbance. I got a couple of nice plants.
Have you got a picture of how you use the loo rolls?
The area I have used is a raised bed with a mix of topsoil and used compost from tubs, not the richest mixture but the poppies flourish and it’s the sunniest part of the garden. Not deep soil either, about 8 inches down it is paving slabs. Oh and the cat likes to sleep there so it’s a case of treat them mean I think.
I mean they tend to just pop up wherever I’ve dug, so seeds that must have been already there in the soil have germinated. The same thing as the ‘Somme effect’ I guess. It’s what makes me wonder if that period of cold is important though
I really would try growing them in modules, thinning out and then planting when they are more substantial. This method has worked well for me for many years, and I originally copied it from Christo Lloyd, one of the great gardeners.
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@pansyface the reason why the poppies grew where all the bombings took place in WW2 was that the seeds were deep in the ground and now had been bought to the surface and they had the light they needed. I don't think that the water logged areas were a factor apart from when Spring arrived maybe the water had gone and the seeds germinated. Too much water wont allow germination. This is the same when you suddenly see poppies growing along the verges of new roads and housing developments. I think poppies are one of the few seeds that really like to germinate on the top of the soil and not be covered.
The seeds I collect each year are not given a cold spell and they do germinate and flower well. @PeterJarvis our soil is clay but we have added some of our own compost. It isn't waterlogged during the germination and growing season. Don't give up. Try a few seeds under different suggestions and see which works best.
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