The one time I had success with poppies I sowed them in the fall (along about now) in a raised bed in my vegetable garden. I just scattered the seeds and raked over them with my garden rake, left them unmulched, sprinkled every other day or so till I got some germination, and then just kept them weeded. The next spring, Voila, poppies. The soil in this bed has been amended so that it drains very well and is kinda gritty. I don't know if that hurt them or helped them, just sharing.

My SO also loves poppies and we/I had tried a few times in the past to grow them from seed. I, like you, was under the impression they were easy to grow, you know just scatter them in the wind and you will have thousands. They may be easy to grow for some folks, but for whatever reason, not for me.

Good Luck-

Oh, and I think the ones I finally got to grow for me were Iceland poppies

ThAnk you, Jim!
I'll try it again this yr.

I've had success with Ca. poppies. I saw them in a garden near a dental office and snagged a few seed pods (they burst open as you touch then when they are ripe). I took them home threw them on the ground and forgot about them. I'm sure I weeded some out before I realized what they were. they seeded themselves all over after that - beautiful soft orange. I had oriental poppies too, but they never self seeded.

I had poppies, both CA and oriental, germinate from seed the winter sowing way and grow fine, sowing them around New Year time. They reseed just fine too.

I planted about 8 different kinds of plant seed last spring. We had 2 weeks of rain and standing water in my garden and they all washed away.
Went into the $ store and bought 2 packs of poppy seeds and just dumped them in the garden about May. They came up and look gorgeous between the roses. When they started to die I just pulled them up and left them in the garden. Many of them reseeded to even larger plants.
These were soooooo easy and I will plant them again this year.
Rosa