Greetings all,
I have just planted a wild Poppy that I picked up at the
road side, Anyone have any care tips? It is a bit droopy this morning but I
think it will pull through.
Cheers Barnze

--
Keep Smiling
Look after ya family


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Barnze wrote:
Greetings all,
I have just planted a wild Poppy that I picked up at the
road side, Anyone have any care tips? It is a bit droopy this morning but I
think it will pull through.
Cheers Barnze


Poppies don't like being transplanted at all. I'm assuming by "wild"
poppy you mean either P. rhoeas (the common scarlet field poppy), or P.
somniferum (the pink/purple opium poppy). Neither of these will
generally survive a transplant, I'm afraid.

Alternately, the good news is they're a doddle to grow from seed, so go
back to the roadside in a few weeks when the flowering is all over and
the plants look pretty much dead, snip of a few seedheads and sow them
next spring right where you want to grow them. Or get a packet of seeds
from the market, they're dead cheap.

I'm a big poppy fan - P. bracteatum is a wonder...

Thes.

In article ,
says...
Barnze wrote:
Greetings all,
I have just planted a wild Poppy that I picked up at the
road side, Anyone have any care tips? It is a bit droopy this morning but I
think it will pull through.

Alternately, the good news is they're a doddle to grow from seed, so go
back to the roadside in a few weeks when the flowering is all over and
the plants look pretty much dead, snip of a few seedheads and sow them
next spring right where you want to grow them. Or get a packet of seeds
from the market, they're dead cheap.

Sow them? Shaking seed pods from ours last year onto more borders where
we fancied some poppies sufficed here. Try to pick ones that still
rattle and where the tops aren't *quite* open.

Warwick

"Thes" wrote in a message:
The good news is poppies are a doddle to grow from seed, so go
back to the roadside in a few weeks when the flowering is all over and
the plants look pretty much dead, snip of a few seedheads and sow them
next spring right where you want to grow them.
I'm a big poppy fan - P. bracteatum is a wonder...

Thes.
---------------------
Last year and the year before I did just as you recommend, gathered field
poppy seedheads. Shook the seeds out around the wildflower part of my garden
and guess what? Not one germinated. The same with teasels and white
campion. I asked for advice from a gardening friend who said that he
thought that my soil is far too rich for wild flowers and that they will
only grow in impoverished soil. Why then do I have red campion and alkanet
growing very happily almost everywhere?

Roscoe

In article , Roscoe
writes
---------------------
Last year and the year before I did just as you recommend, gathered field
poppy seedheads. Shook the seeds out around the wildflower part of my garden
and guess what? Not one germinated. The same with teasels and white
campion. I asked for advice from a gardening friend who said that he
thought that my soil is far too rich for wild flowers and that they will
only grow in impoverished soil. Why then do I have red campion and alkanet
growing very happily almost everywhere?

It's not that plants actively *dislike* rich soils, it's that some
plants aren't strong enough to compete against some of the other thugs.
There are then two ways to evolve - either become a thug yourself, or
specialise in colonising soils which are too poor for the thugs to
survive.

Corn field poppies are annuals. It's difficult for an annual to develop
thuggish tendencies (though goosegrass has managed it ;-) ). The
poppy's strategy is to produce a large quantity of seed that remain
viable for very many years, and germinate quickly when exposed to light.
So when the ground is disturbed, eg ploughed for sowing corn, the poppy
is in there and away.

But it won't manage to compete against more thuggish plants.

Alkanet is a real thug. I wouldn't have thought of red campion as a
thug, but it is a perennial. If you want to get white campion and teasel
going, sow them in seed trays and plant out as small plants - we've
established white campion in a meadow by doing that.

There's no point trying that with poppies as they are annuals, and
fairly spindly ones at that - by the time they're big enough to
transplant, they're already flowering and aren't going to last much
longer.
--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

Roscoe wrote in message ...


Last year and the year before I did just as you recommend, gathered
field
poppy seedheads. Shook the seeds out around the wildflower part of my
garden
and guess what? Not one germinated. The same with teasels and white
campion. I asked for advice from a gardening friend who said that he
thought that my soil is far too rich for wild flowers and that they
will
only grow in impoverished soil. Why then do I have red campion and
alkanet
growing very happily almost everywhere?

Don't worry too much about them, they will eventually germinate. Poppy
seeds can lie dormant for many years and as far as I recall, need
disturbed soil and light to germinate. The field of Field beans round my
house is full of poppies, as it is every year as the farmer will not use
weedkillers on his fields.

Mike
www.british-naturism.org.uk

The message
from "Roscoe" contains these words:

Last year and the year before I did just as you recommend, gathered field
poppy seedheads. Shook the seeds out around the wildflower part of my garden
and guess what? Not one germinated. The same with teasels and white
campion. I asked for advice from a gardening friend who said that he
thought that my soil is far too rich for wild flowers and that they will
only grow in impoverished soil.

He's got it a bit backwards. Wildflowers don't mind rich soil, but
that category includes coarse powerful stuff like cocksfoot
grass/nettles/docks which shade out more delicate and desirable plants.
So if you're growing a wildflower area, it's important not to fertilise
it, and to remove the coarse plants before they take over.

I've grown white campion and teasels easily from seed, but in bare dug
soil (quite rich, too). Field poppies also seed best onto bare recently
cultivated soil ,that's why they proliferate in cornfields.If you're
scattering the seeds among established plants they probably won't get
enough light to germinate. Clear a bare patch for them, break the soil
surface, and they should do fine.

Janet.

On Tue, 17 Jun 2003 05:37:40 +0100, Roscoe wrote:

Last year and the year before I did just as you recommend, gathered field
poppy seedheads. Shook the seeds out around the wildflower part of my garden
and guess what? Not one germinated. The same with teasels and white
campion. I asked for advice from a gardening friend who said that he
thought that my soil is far too rich for wild flowers and that they will
only grow in impoverished soil. Why then do I have red campion and alkanet
growing very happily almost everywhere?

Some of these weedy annuals are, like their cousins the real
weeds, lovers of disturbed soils. Dig over that bed late in the
summer and I bet you that next spring you'll see your misssing
poppies, teasels, and campions coming up.


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

"Roscoe" wrote in
:


"Thes" wrote in a message:
The good news is poppies are a doddle to grow from seed, so go
back to the roadside in a few weeks when the flowering is all over
and the plants look pretty much dead, snip of a few seedheads and sow
them next spring right where you want to grow them.
I'm a big poppy fan - P. bracteatum is a wonder...

Thes.
---------------------
Last year and the year before I did just as you recommend, gathered
field poppy seedheads. Shook the seeds out around the wildflower part
of my garden and guess what? Not one germinated. The same with
teasels and white campion. I asked for advice from a gardening
friend who said that he thought that my soil is far too rich for wild
flowers and that they will only grow in impoverished soil. Why then do
I have red campion and alkanet growing very happily almost everywhere?


Apart from the suggestions already made, it could be pests. I have tried
red field poppies repeatedly, but the same thing happens - the slugs munch
the seedlings before they get to flower. I thought at first they weren't
coming up, then realised that they were - they just didn't last long enough
to bloom.

I guess that the disturbed earth that favours poppies does not favour slugs
so much.

I too have forests of red campion ;-)

Victoria

Mine seems to be coping well with the transplanting & has now flowered so
all looks well.
Cheers Barnze

--
Keep Smiling
Look after ya family
"Victoria Clare" wrote in message
. 240.11...
"Roscoe" wrote in
:


"Thes" wrote in a message:
The good news is poppies are a doddle to grow from seed, so go
back to the roadside in a few weeks when the flowering is all over
and the plants look pretty much dead, snip of a few seedheads and sow
them next spring right where you want to grow them.
I'm a big poppy fan - P. bracteatum is a wonder...

Thes.
---------------------
Last year and the year before I did just as you recommend, gathered
field poppy seedheads. Shook the seeds out around the wildflower part
of my garden and guess what? Not one germinated. The same with
teasels and white campion. I asked for advice from a gardening
friend who said that he thought that my soil is far too rich for wild
flowers and that they will only grow in impoverished soil. Why then do
I have red campion and alkanet growing very happily almost everywhere?


Apart from the suggestions already made, it could be pests. I have tried
red field poppies repeatedly, but the same thing happens - the slugs munch
the seedlings before they get to flower. I thought at first they weren't
coming up, then realised that they were - they just didn't last long
enough
to bloom.

I guess that the disturbed earth that favours poppies does not favour
slugs
so much.

I too have forests of red campion ;-)

Victoria


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