They don't look like Cal poppies - (to me, anyway) and I am thinking more perennial than annual since the Cal poppies are definitely annuals but heavy, heavy reseeders.

Good luck - and enjoy them

Carrie

Corn poppies, also known as Shirley poppies, Papaver rhoeas. Do you remember planting those?

Opium poppies, or breadseed poppies have paler blue foliage and grow more upright. California poppies have glaucous foliage, but it's more finely cut, almost fern-like.

The only perennial poppy you are likely to sucessfully grow would be Oriental poppies and they would probably not come up bloooming.

Collect seed after the petals shatter and the seed pods dry. It takes a couple of weeks or so. You'll know when they are ready -- little openings appear at the top of the pods where you can shake out the seeds. I collect the pods in a bowl as I cut them.

Nell

Thanks. I have other poppies coming up with really nice foliage and blue green like you described. I know I planted both Shirley and Orientals. I'd like to get some Breadsead poppies for this fall. I really like the seed pods on these plants.

I was inspired by so many here and am really happy they're turning out well. My thumb may actually be green underneath all that dirt.

Is this an oriental poppy about to bloom?

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That's not a leaf. It's sort of roundish and firm.

That is a bud. We'll have to ask someone farther north who grows Oriental poppies whether it is an Oriental.

Is this foliage near the ground, or in a longer stem that we can't see in the photo?

Nell

It's about 2' tall now. That's at the very tip of the plant. I didn't think they would bloom. I have 6 or so that came up from direct sowing an entire pack of seed.

Nell, I think it might be a breadseed poppy. I don't remember planting any, but there were several labeled "poppy" from trades. Maybe I got a couple of these.

Mine looks an awful lot like Lauren's Grape from D's Garden.

I do remember a seed packet labeled "purple poppy". I wonder if it's a peony poppy, breadseed, or something else?

You know, one day, I'm going to learn to save seed packets.

What grand anticipation. It takes a few days to bloom. The bud runs up on a little stem, then bends down and then finally turns back straight up, and opens in the next day or so. I hope it is purple.

Nell

Nell, I know you'll appreciate this, but the anticipation from seeing that first sprout from a seed I casually tossed out until the collection of next year's seeds many months later is very meditative. I feel better than I have in years. And I have nothing but pretty blooms, tomatoes, and a couple of tiny squash to show for it. :)

Here are some peony flowered breadseed poppies (P. somniferum paeoniflorum) if it helps to see the flower and the foliage. I wish the P. rhoeas poppies came back for me as reliably as these. I love the red ones.

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Okay, I'm new at this, too. My seeds were labeled feathered poppy, but I only got a few feathered, and the rest were these (my photo in my garden):
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Instead of being short, these are around 4 feet tall! Instead of being singles and lighter pink, they are peony flowered and salmon.

I'm assuming that when these finish and I collect the seeds that I can just pull up the foliage?

Thanks

Cameron

Cameron, you will have to leave them until the entire plant is brown and dry and you can hear the seeds rattling inside the pod.....watch closely or you will have millions of seedlings everywhere in your garden and yard! They look pretty ugly while waiting.

Also be aware that most will cross-hybridize if other poppies are near, but many will be gorgeous. I think they are all beautiful no matter color or shape. Trust me you will have enough seeds to supply the free world!

If they are bread-seed poppies, they will have huge seed pods....remember to save some for baking.

Be sure to show the seed pods when they are ripe....everyone.

I decided I didn't care for the Shirley poppies. So I pulled all but two of mine in the very back of the bed. I'll let those two go to seed and collect them. The ones I posted here yesterday, I'll be saving those for sure.

I must have started mine too late. I still just have tiny seedlings.
Wow those are some beautiful blooms!

Token, that is not a perennial oriental poppy, What you have in that picture is either a breadseed or shirley poppy. The leaves on oriental poppies are hairy. I have a number of them growning in my garden. If I think of it I will take a picture for you. But don't count on it, as soon as I finish my coffee I have to get started getting the house ready for a graduation party tomorrow.

Jenny P

{{gwi:671636}}Poppy Pods with Larkspur and Verbena on a Stick

From this point, expect about 2 weeks of waiting for pods to dry and open the little spaces at the tops where the seeds can be shaken out. The plants get really dry and ugly while you wait.

If you only want enough poppy seeds to reseed your beds, pull up all but a little cluster of the biggest pods. One good-sized pod holds a lot of seeds.

Nell

token28001, your poppy with the forming bud is a somniferum, or breadseed, poppy. In the first set of photos from your post, I can't quite tell what the first two are (but most likely orientale, based on the foliage), but the photo of the poppy that got knocked over is papaver rhoeas, or corn poppy. Go back to that photo and look at the rising flower buds. See how they're sort of hairy and elongated? That's a characteristic of shirley/corn/rhoeas poppies.

If the foliage is blue-green-gray, smooth and waxy and lettuce looking, it's a somniferum (breadseed) poppy. These poppies are annual.

Shirly/corn/rhoeas poppies are annual.

Oriental poppies have bristly, more lance shaped leaves, and the foliage is a more true grass green color. These poppies are perennial.

California poppies are different entirely, and are annuals everywhere except for my yard, it seems. LOL

Speaking of poppies, when is the best time to scatter poppy seed? If I scatter them in the fall, will they come up in the spring? I think now is too late to scatter poppy seed in my beds.
I love the pics!
JJ

Here she comes. :)

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Looks purple to me.

Token those are oriental poppies. I have a bunch of them. I am also in zone 7. I planted from seed, they are in their second year and the plants are huge. They get full sun and good drainage. The indivivual flower only last a few days but I had blooms for a month plus last year. The foliage is horrible when the plant dies back mid summer so plant something in front of them or trim away as they go. After they have died back they will send up some new greens for next year. You can leave the seed heads intact if you want winter interest or not. They are a beautiful plant.
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P.S. I am still working on the giant Chia pet in the background. LOL

Introducing, Lauren's Grape, I think.

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It looks beautiful!! Did you ever determine if it is an oriental or breadseed or whatever?

I think that's a breadseed poppy, known as papaver somniferum, judging from the lettuce-like leaves. I'm trying to grow some from seed this fall and this picture is making me all the more excited about getting to seeing this beautiful flower in bloom. Aaaah, I can't wait!