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George Shirley · 24-07-2006, 10:15 PM posted to rec.gardens

zxcvbob wrote:

wrote:

Hello,

Have posted now & then. I live in Northern New England. Now, I have a
question about annual poppies. I grow corn poppies and some are true
red but turn orange red after being in bloom for a time (week or two).
Is there a variety that is deep red or even mahogany or purplish red?
The sparkle of the field poppy is hard to beat. I also grow oriental
poppies, Shirley poppies, Cedric Morris poppies, & some California
poppies. I was not planning on growing any field poppies this year,
but they reseeded and I have left many in place.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Karen

There were some frilly double red poppies that resembled opium poppies
but were a lot smaller growing in my back flower bed for years. All of
them were bright red; no variations. They were annuals and reseed
freely, but the dogs destroyed them last year and they didn't come back
this year. I never figured out what the were, but I think they were a
variety of Papaver rhoeas. I'm hoping there are still seeds in the
ground that may come back next year if I can get the grass out out of
that bed without turning the ground over too much and burying them deep.
I saw some hollyhock seedlings in there this year after I weeded out
the grass, from hollyhocks I grew 2 or 3 years ago, and a lily that I
thought they had killed.

This has not been a good year for gardening; I hurt my back really bad
over a month ago and it's just now getting to where I can work in the
garden a little. At least the dogs are staying out of the garden and
flowerbeds now. I have a wire around them that looks like an electric
fence.

Bob, in Minnesota

We have those double red poppies growing in the front flower bed. Don't
know the Latin name for them but they are a true red and the red lasts
until the bloom drops off. Annuals that reseed as Bob mentions. We just
let the seed cases burst open and then cut the rest off. We've had
several varieties of red poppies over the years but many of them played
out after a bit.

Here in USDA zone 9b they come up in January and are usually gone by
April. They do make a beautiful show while they're with us and several
people on our block have displays of them so they must be common enough
to be at Walmart or the more common garden centers.

George