Obscure it by interplanting with Gypsophila paniculata.

You can remove it now. Oriental poppies enter a period of dormancy after blooming and during the heat of summer - unlike bulbs, there's no benefit to hanging onto the foliage after it starts to go over (it can harbor insects or diseases) and you should cut back on watering during this period as well. Later in the season with cooler temperatures, the plant will push out some new growth, usually just a basal rosette. This is an indication that it is emerging from summer dormancy and has some root activity - this is the proper time to divide or transplant, if you so desire.

Gypsophila paniculata is a Class C noxious weed in WA state.

So local outlets may or may not have discontinued it. Rarely seen wild in Seattle, the state listing would be based on behavior shown in eastern WA where I have seen it growing as a weed myself.

If that is the case the state must have made them all drop it. Until recently a standard item here.

Unless funding has dried up they do actually have agents that pop up at nurseries and sniff around for verboten plants.

blue, IME by the time the foliage looks ratty enough to remove, the seedheads have ripened. But if not fully dried/ripe, they do not need the foliage to do so - only time - so OK to still remove the leaves :-) Like many papaver species, oriental poppies are native to lean soils, often those that are sandy, rocky and rather infertile -- flopping is characteristic of the pretty fertile soil conditions most of us have in our gardens. Try using a peony grow-thru ring next spring when the poppies start to leaf out and grow in earnest.

Class C noxious weeds are left to the individual county as to control measures. To my knowledge, they are not prohibited from sale in the Puget Sound area but many nursery owners and buyers are very responsible and proactive when it comes to potentially invasive plants and choose not to offer them for sale. In 2004, a task force was established by the Washington Invasive Species Coalition, members of the WNSLA and other agencies to voluntarily halt the sales of noxious weeds and potentially invasive species and offer alternate planting suggestions. A good many local area nurseries are participants. When buying for a previous nursery employer, we elected NOT to sell baby's breath, donkeytail spurge (Euphorbia myrsinites), any English ivy (except as houseplants), Phalaris/gardener's garters, Mexican hairgrass, lamiastrum, English holly and butterfly bush. I lobbied hard to discontinue the sale of English laurel but didn't win that war :-)

Yeah, that's right a Class C would not be looked for in nurseries by the state.

Need to drop baby's breath from sales yards on this side of the mountains doubtful.

Thank you Gardengal so much. I am relieved to know this. I can now whack down that mess, yea!

I was at a nursery just yesterday that had butterfly bush (buddleia) in their native plant section. Made me want to go ballistic.

Good to know about the poppies. Are they reliably perennial?

Native plant section?? There's nothing native about butterfly bush, at least the ones most commonly grown around here, so what's up with that??

I had oriental poppies in my old garden that were going on 20 years old, so yes, they are very perennial, provided they have good drainage.

Maybe the invasive butterfly bush has become so common that the nincompoops think it's native. I was appalled.

I'll have to add some oriental poppies. The beds in my front yard are mostly perennials now, and it's nice to sit back and watch the show.

Doubtless someone saw the weedy butterfly bush growing wild and thought that meant it was native.

A mistake I often see is red (fruiting) currant planted in place of (red) flowering currant in public plantings of "native" shrubs - such as those along roadways. In addition to them both being called red currants in English these have species names with similar meanings (Ribes rubrum, R. sanguineum). Apparently contractors/landscape workers who don't know the difference are getting "red currant" plants from suppliers and planting them on projects.

This year I also saw R. rubrum displayed in the native section of a garden center, complete with bright red hanging fruit clusters.

Has anyone ever cut off green leaves while their oriental poppy was blooming? Mine is a few years old and is taking over that area in my small crowded flower bed. I removed quite a few of the large leaves flopping on the bed and on other plants. I'm wondering how big a mistake this was...