I've been trying to grow poppies at various times over the past two
months on a couple of bare plots in my front and back yards. The
climate is the San Francisco Bay Area, and California poppies are
found all over my neighborhood.

I tried some sort of hybrid ("California Twister" from Burpee) sown
directly into a small plot, but only two seedlings managed to come up,
and not where I directly planted them. I don't know if these are
actually California poppies (eschscholzia californica) or some similar
species. The way they've come up doesn't look like what I thought
California poppy seedlings would look. I tried a different mix
("Tropical Sunset" California poppies from Renee's Garden) and I
couldn't get any of the seeds to germinate when sown directly.

I had plenty of seeds, so I tried putting them in a 4" pot to
transplant, and then in some small pots left over from when I
transplanted some potted marigolds. I could get them to germinate,
but most of the young seedlings succumbed after transplanting. One of
my original transplants is still there. It's now got four small
bluish-green shoots, and I expect that it will eventually sprout up
the main plant from the middle. The other transplants either wilted
or got trampled by deer. Some of the deer trampled ones looked pretty
healthy until they got stepped on. I thought of transplanting them at
a later stage, but I understand that they'll almost surely die if
they're transplanted that late.

Anyone have luck with poppies germinated in peat pots? I got a pack
of Jiffy-7 peat pellets as well as some of the 2-1/4" peat pots. I
thought that if I do it this way, I could see how healthy they are
before transplanting. I'd rather transplant without heavily
disturbing the roots. I tried cutting out pieces of soil around the
transplant, but I inevitably exposed the root. With the pellets, I
don't think I'll need to remove the bag. I've researched the peat
pots, and many of the recommendations seem to involve cutting out the
bottom (to let the root extend) before transplanting and trimming the
sides before planting.

I don't anticipate that any of the poppies are going to grow terribly
well this late in the year, although we've got warm weather late in
the year. I'm just hoping that the roots stay alive with our mild
winters, as I hear they're typically perennials where it doesn't
freeze.