Lovely! I just direct sowed some 'Lauren's Grape' and 'Royal Wedding'--can't wait! I have some that I winter sowed but haven't planted out yet.

It is amazing how seeds germinate and grow from seedlings into various sized plants. And some even bloom!

Saw my first peony poppy blooming yesterday. These are self sown and not always sure what color will appear. This was a deep red and I was expecting a dark puple or mauve. Maybe I scattered some red poppy seed there last fall and forgot. Poppies grow in several of my flower beds. I also sprinkle seed amongst the iris plants. Those seedlings are tiny now.

We had a couple of high eighties and nineties in a row. Cooled off this week and plenty of rain but those hot days the garden did look a bit wilted.

I have tons of these light pink/purple. I was pulling them out.....too many. I also have 3 different red ones. They are awesome. Yes, from a tiny tiny seed we get these beautiful flowers.

Camp the seeds for this came from Diane's Seeds. They were advertised as organic, open sourced, field grown, and were described as a deep velvety purple. So still looking for that real purple poppy.

I had a hungarian bread poppy that had garden sex with some red ones and makes a plant that looks just like Laurens grape.

I tend to avoid the somniferum/overrun and orientale/overinaflash myself but have a terrible weakness for poppies of a smaller, neater disposition such as the little alpine p.miyabeanum and the many (and often misnamed) atlanticums/rupifragum/heidrechii/nudicaule/spicata/trinifolium/tianschanicum and dubium which have found a (sometimes very shortlived) home in my garden.

My tactic with poppies is that to over lap the types and they bloom at different times so they stretch out the season and pray for no march winds... My Red bread poppies are up first and then th purple and pinker varieties and then the rhoeas. I let them grow in amongst the other wildflowers and plants. They are a simple reddish orange wild one from a walk on a trail in the foothills to the Maritime alps. I think they might actually be P dubium judging from their long seed pod and foliage. I would love to get the P. dubium with the black spots on their petals. I think they are from Bulgaria...God the red somniferous were going for almost a month in my vegetable garden till they got mildew and had to be pulled.. I am going to try some of the Armenian poppies and some of the antlanticums this year. They might not like my heat so it is a gamble.. The oriental poppies don't DO Texas. No gambling there. The somniferous and rheas have naturalized in my garden aREA and come up where they want to. Sometimes if we have a dry winter ( I don't water), they miss a year, but this spring they were wild. I don't much like the fancy somniferums and stick with the single petaled ones, except for the red which is a bit doubled but still look natural. Their color is so rich and handsome, that I forgive them their dance with structural fufu-ness.

Ooh yes, Lady bird poppies - p. commutatum, last really well if deadheaded - better value than p.rhoeas and with a more substantial petal which should stand up to the Texan heat. I also prefer the single petalled types but the somniferums all revert almost immediately to that pasty grey-pink colour. Can only keep the vivid colours if there are no other paler ones in the vicinity - a bit like Californian poppies which invariably revert back to orange (had a huge thing for the cream and pinks and that red one - Red Chief).

I ordered some pure white single somniferums (no blotching) last year but had a no show...and not sure I will bother again. The atlanticums are lovely...although again, I prefer the semi-doulble/single ones rather than flore pleno. I think the spicatum and trinifoliums were the most annoying - fabulous leaves - thick, white felted but pasty, flimsy flowers. All in all, I am a firm poppy fan.

I am a poppy fan too. Big bang for the buck and no care aspect. I have been growing the purple and red for 15 years. The pinks keep disappearing on me. No loss as far as I am concerned.

Interesting what you say about the P.trinifoliums because Laura Spinger (of Lauren's Grape fame) said it was one of her favorite poppies. Her garden was in Eastern Colorado at the time think dry and hot. It might be a climate issue. They are reputed to like lime . (That's me babe).

The P. dubium that I saw in google images looks different from Ladybirds.

P. bubium from Bulgaria pic

mara, the 'Lauren's Grape' I mentioned above are from Lauren Springer. No sign yet but it hasn't been quite a week.

I am befuddled by the idea of planting poppies now. I usually plant them in late November/ early December. Different place/different time.

I'm with you, Mara. Although I have sown as late as April, usually I'm sowing poppies in the fall. 'Lauren's Grape' is the only poppy I grow. In fact, as I deadhead the seed pods in July I will cast them where I want them and they don't germinate until the next spring.

Waaaay back in the 90's when HGTV still had gardening (imagine that) I saw an episode of "Gardener's Diary" that showcased Lauren Springer's Colorado garden and her "Grape" poppy. I've had them ever since. And because it is the only one I have, the seed strain has stayed pretty pure.

'Lauren's Grape'

tj

Mine sprout in January and stay small for awhile and bloom in march. I have her book, the "Undaunted Garden" about the designing and growing that garden.

The p.dubium have the same colour flower as both p.spicata and p.trinifolium - a pale orange, while the ladybirds are a clear red (P.commutatum) with small black spots like a smaller, daintier orientale. The foliage of both trinifolium and spicata is very felted and thick - ideal for water preserving and would be good in your heat, Mara...although I find the growth habit of spicata (aka Turkish poppy) to be ungainly. There is a lot of confusion regarding the naming of these - p.pilosum for spicata and the rupifragum/heidrechii are frequently muddled, certainly in my mind and numerous catalogues.

I admit to being a red poppy fan - those 'angel's choir' rhoeas do zero for me...and neither do the pinks. Occasionally, I fantasise about a long drift of orientales now I have the space...but even on 5 acres, sunny spots in a woodland are too precious for a bunch of short blooming divas...and don't believe the lies (I did) about the so-called 'super poppies' which bloom twice - they don't.

Not that I restrict myself to papaver - I have a lot of love for argemone, glaucidium, meconops and all those poppy-like things such as platystemon, callirhoe, escholzia (sp?), hunnemania ...and lately, of course, eomecon, stylophorums, chelidoniums