Plant Poppies In Fall

Corn poppies (Papaver rhoeas, pronounced puh-PAY-ver ROH-ee-as) are undemanding annuals, easy to start from seed. Select an area in full sun with average soil. Too rich a soil will produce leafy plants with few flowers. Prepare seed bed in fall by removing weeds and raking smooth. In late October or November, scatter the tiny seeds thinly atop the prepared bed. Do not cover. Let Nature handle the rest. Basal rosettes of foliage emerge in early spring when the weather is still cool. They look like weeds at emergence; be careful that you do not remove the seedlings by accident.

Thin stems with flower buds arise from the rosettes, curved at the top like shepherd’s hooks. The crooks straighten to heights up to 30-36 inches before the flowers open. The petals resemble crepe paper, with yellow stamens in the center. Flower colors are red, rose, pink, purple, white, and bi-colors. California poppies (Eschscholzia californica) are a western native similar in appearance but flowers are shades of yellow and orange.

If you are planning a garden event for early spring of next year, consider these for large swathes of color when few other plants are in flower. Corn poppies dislike heat and humidity and will melt away as temperatures rise. They are good to pair with late emerging perennials like Butterfly Weed (Asclepias) or Balloon Flower (Platycodon). Leave a few seed heads if reseeding is desired.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation uses Corn Poppies in median and shoulder plantings along their interstate highways.

I spotted this large field of poppies along a rural road. There were a few Larkspur flowers mixed in. It was a breathtaking sight.

I planted these poppies in a newly prepared bed two years ago to prevent erosion until I got around to designing and planting a larger pollinator garden. I got busy and the bed went unplanted. Luckily, they reseeded and I had a beautiful bed this year, with zero effort on my part.

Poppies for Pollinators

Certain plants seem to bloom some years better than others. This year, for instance, the hydrangeas and poppies have been spectacular. There are several species of poppies in the Papaver (pronounced pah-PAY-ver) genus. I am going to focus on three of these: Iceland poppies (P. nudicaule), Shirley poppies (P. rhoeas) and Oriental poppies (P. orientale), and one of their distant cousins, Argemone.

Oriental poppies are, in my opinion, the showiest. The large, intensely colored flowers with a black blotch at the throat make my heart beat faster. While these are perennial, I have struggled to keep them more than a year or two. The Orientals require more winter chill than my zone 7b garden can offer. Without enough cold temperatures, stems are extremely short. Sometimes the blooms are almost concealed by the coarsely cut leaves.

Shirley poppies are grown as annuals. Iceland poppies are short-lived perennials, usually grown as annuals. Both have lovely, crinkled crepe-paper petals. Icelands tend to be yellow, salmon and orange. I prefer the Shirleys, which lean toward pink, rose, red and white or bi-colors. For years, I struggled to grow these from seeds until I finally learned the key to success, which I will now share with you. Prepare your seed bed in fall. Rake it smooth and scatter the seeds on top in the month of November. Don’t cover them; let Mother Nature handle the winter water schedule. Seeds are tiny and it is easy to over-sow. You can mix the seeds with dry sand to sprinkle a more even distribution. Seedlings will emerge in early spring without any additional care or mollycoddling. They put on a show before other annuals even think about blooming. Once the blooms have faded, you can rip out the ugly, dying plants or leave them in place for a few weeks and they will drop seeds for the following year. All poppies need full sun. Avoid fertilizing, which may result in an abundance of leaves and few flowers.

Red Papaver rhoeas are also known as Corn Poppies or Flanders Poppies, and are a reminder of fallen soldiers. A Canadian doctor, John McRae, wrote a poem honoring fallen WWI soldiers. As students, many of us memorized “In Flanders Field the poppies blow…”

I enjoy my poppies in situ, but if you prefer to bring yours indoors, pick them when the flowers are just starting to show color and sear the cut ends with a flame before placing them in water. Poppies are the early spring stars of my pollinator garden, where the honeybees are so numerous that it sounds as if the flower bed is abuzz. Bonus: Deer rarely browse poppies. North Carolina has planted huge swathes of these along some of its highways. They are gorgeous. NC Department of Transportation produces a free booklet describing their roadside wildflower program. It is chock full of great info. Find the link here.

There is another member of the broad Papaveraceae family that adorns my garden. Argemone, “Prickly Poppy,” is not to everyone’s taste due to its prickly leaves and stems. A. mexicana, “Mexican Poppy” has yellow flowers. A. polyanthemos is white. Prickly Poppy will reseed everywhere. It has a deep taproot that means it will endure drought, but also means than its numerous seedlings are a challenge to remove. Damaged stems exude a bright yellow sap that causes skin irritation. Still, I dearly love scratchy, thorny, evil plants, so will have this one in the Mary Snoddy garden forever.

This patch of poppies brought honeybees from all directions. It is located in the midst of my home orchard.

Flanders poppies. Photo by ViJakob from Pixabay.

Prickly Poppy (Argemone), showing off her spiny personality. Those seed pods and buds have needle-sharp prickles.