Sowing Poppy Seeds

A few years ago I was gifted a handful of poppy seeds by a gardener on a gardening forum I participated on. The seeds came with the instructions to just "scatter them in your garden in February" and the promise that soon I'd have more poppy seeds than I knew what to do with. Not knowing any better, I followed the instructions to scatter the seeds in February. I got more seeds later in the month and scattered those too.

Then around the middle of March I started to wonder if scattering the poppy seeds when it was still winter and snowing in Chicago was the best idea. This is how I sow poppy seeds in my garden. 

(Lavender Peony Poppy)

In April I spotted tiny green specs in the garden and wondered what they were. Once spring really got going I had hundreds of poppy plants growing and the mysterious green specs had been identified as poppies.

(Red double poppy)

That spring I learned to thin out the weaker seedlings because these plants like sun and the smaller ones never catch up to the larger plants. They flower at a small size creating small pods that are difficult to collect seeds from.

I've been reading on a couple of gardening blogs that people have trouble growing poppies from seeds. Of course my knowledge of sowing poppy seeds is purely accidental but I'll share here what I do. Ever since the first year I've been sowing them in February in Chicago and I've noticed a few things. If I scatter them over frozen snow they end up in a few feet from where I intended to sow them-the tiny seeds bounce off of the snow and/or are pushed around by winds and snow drifts in the garden. Wet, melting or recent snow is the best because the seeds get trapped in place and reach the ground as the snow melts.

Sunlight improves germination-covering them with soil, mulch or shade from other plants will keep them from germinating. Since I sow them over snow they're one of the first seeds in the garden to get exposed to the sun in the spring. Poppy seedlings survive the late frosts without needing to be covered by cloches or garden cloth. Seeds can lay dormant for a few years if covered by soil. If you wait to sow your poppy seeds until the weather warms ups they're likely to get eaten by birds looking for a meal.

Today I only sowed a few poppy seeds in my garden. Last year these plants started to attracted attention that I didn't want so I'm reducing the amount of plants I grow. In previous years I made sure to grow a vine or a lot of sunflowers along the front gate to obstruct the view of what became known in my neighborhood as "the poppy field." In reality my garden is the size of a postage stamp but it became much larger in local lore. Keep that in mind if you're planning on growing poppies of any kind-nosy neighbors, stupid kids and shady characters may have to be dealt with. Now to figure out what to do with all these seeds...

Related links:
How to Transplant Poppy Seedlings in the Garden. Post about when/how to transplant them.
When I collect Poppy Seeds-previous blog entry
Natural Methods of Pest Control-Previous blog entry w/video- aphids on poppy plants.
Bees visiting my garden-YouTube vid of bees visiting poppy flowers.
How to Save Seeds-My post with tips on collecting seeds from your garden for next year.