Getty Poppies

 Poppies (other than the California and Mexican Tulip kinds) are difficult in my area because there is always a winter or spring heat wave to kill them off.  Instead of struggling to grow my own, I enjoyed the variety of poppies to be found in the Getty's flower garden.

A wall of sweet peas has invaded poppy-space.  They are welcome.



 Fuzzy buds
Although the flowers are small they nonetheless can have a great impact in a garden.
 

Comments

  1. After growing for two years, mine are finally blooming. Of course, they are orange and were advertised to be red. :(

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    1. At least they bloomed and did not die an hour and a half after you planted them! The orange would look stunning with your beautiful Ceanothus...

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  2. Beautiful! My mom (in Spokane) grows poppies so well, I don't have the space...

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    1. I think you can grow one or two other non-poppy plants very well, though. :)

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  3. Beautiful photos. I also struggle in growing poppies. Blinded by the delusions that rain can bring on, I planted 3 hybrid poppies grown by Annie's in February. The plants looked great for a time - until they collapsed without ever blooming.

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    1. I thought about them also, for a moment. Caught myself just in time.

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  4. Wow ! What beautiful poppies !! I love them !!
    Lovely photos !
    Greetings

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  5. Aren't they lovely!
    I have found them difficult to germinate. Needless to say I will try again.

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  6. I always drool when I see poppies growing and blooming like this. I am in the "I can't get them to grow group". My Mother had them and they grew like weeds. She would pull them out by the hands full. The same with Sweet Peas. I have to be satisfied with a look at pictures like these.

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    1. Apparently that group of which I am also a member is much larger than I thought!

      Had healthy sweet pea sprouts from seeds I planted last fall, and a bird came and carefully pulled out all the seedlings and left them lying on the ground. Grrr!

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  7. I guess there are a few benefits to gardening in a cool climate as poppies here act like weeds. They self seed prolifically and require constant deadheading and thinning to prevent them from turning into a poppy lawn. They are worth the extra effort though.

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    1. There are some very beautiful poppies. The reddish one with the purple base and the fringed edges--4th picture from bottom. Can't imagine that one as a weed, but it must happen. I can see they would be worth the work.

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  8. The annual bread/opium poppies, P. somniferum, seem to be the most adaptable. They bloom and self-sow in this moist but rarely cool-in-spring climate, and the foliage goes to hell more slowly than perennial Oriental poppies; it also holds up better in dry summers than wet ones. Given that they're a crop in places with dry, blazing late spring, summer, and fall, they might be the ones to try from seed. But, it occurs as I write, they might need the winter chill they get in the 'Stans and wouldn't in southern California. Fussy buggers.

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  9. I love poppies, but haven't had good luck with them yet. Periodically I try again. Thanks for sharing yours, they are wonderful.

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