"Polly the Parrot" wrote in message
...
Bought some poppies in Bunnings.

Planted facing westerly sun, carp fertiliser (smelly brown stuff mixed
with water).

Trouble is, either the flowers are very small, or they only half open,
or the stems snap, and the stems are very short.

Any ideas to improve the situation?

as well as suspecting bunnings' products in general, i'd also wonder about
the season, the type, and the fertiliser!! :-)

most poppies don't flower in winter. not sure what kind you've got or where
you are, but i'm kind of amazed they're flowering at all (that could just be
my ignorance though). i'd not expect them to flower well this time of year
(actually i'd not expect flowering _at all_, but again we don't know the
type).

fertiliser: many "wildflowers" dislike fertiliser, manures, or rich soil &
are happier without. this might be part of the problem. having said that,
some poppies would be thrilled (but again it would depend what type they
are). but it's a possibility - too much nutrition.

i also gather they were transplants from a punnet. again being very general,
poppies tend to dislike transplanting (although i've done it) - so they may
not do especially well until the next generation when they are self-seeding,
whereupon the self-sown plants do much better than the originals.

last possibility i can think of is perhaps not enough sun through the day,
then they get blasted in the afternoon; but you haven't indicated this as
part of the problem.
kylie