I wish I could get my Californian poppies going. I have little luck with them, possibly because slugs and snails snaffle the seedlings.
They like sand and well drained soil. I have a special bed which is well drained, with drainage pipes and filled with sand and poor soil in a sunny position. I made this bed in my otherwise clay garden because I wanted to grow plants that I knew would not do well in my heavy clay. I call it my Mediterranean garden. California poppies love it and self seed.
Based in Sussex, I garden to encourage as many birds to my garden as possible.
I have a sand, full sun bed that I thought perfect for these but have had almost zero. It maybe that snails are eating them. I've spent a lot of money on poppy seeds over the last few years with little result. I might try growing Calif poppies in pots and transfer them over, but read they don't like root distrubance. I might try when they are small and see how they do.
@Fire Humm, it's going back a good few years, but I think in the beginning I sowed the seed in pots in the early autumn and coddled them in a cold frame over the winter and when they were big and tough enough I planted them out in spring. Never looked back since then. You could try sowing now and hopefully that will work. Slugs and snails haven't been a problem.
Based in Sussex, I garden to encourage as many birds to my garden as possible.
Rudbeckia lacinata 'juligold' is probably my best looking plant this year. It's over 6ft tall and flowering well. I think it's because it is a new plant so has been watered to try and get it established whilst the other plants have been left more to their own devices. Our helianthus salicifolius, which normally reaches 6ft +, has barely reached 4ft and most of the leaves have fallen off.
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The one plant that is at the top of my list every year without fail.