Growing Poppies

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Growing Poppies

The poppy is a beautiful annual flower with very bright leaves. They are wild flowers that enrich different types of gardens. Most of them are herbaceous plants although you can find few of them as shrubs. Growing poppies depend on the different varieties, as they grow native to many parts of the world.

The first poppies were cultivated around 5000 BC in Mesopotamia, Persia and Egypt. Poppies grow better in cool climates and are frost resistant.

Growing poppies require that poppy seeds be sown in the autumn to anticipate the first frost for spring germination. If not, poppy seeds need to be sown immediately after the frost ends in the spring. In order to sow them you must spread poppy seeds on the ground and cover with a thin layer of soil. Time for germination usually takes about 10-15 days.

When the poppies grow approximately 1 inch tall, you should thin the poppy seedlings to make it grow faster. Once the poppies are a few inches tall you can transplant them directly into the ground. Growing poppies is not a difficult task because they are self-sufficient and usually do not require watering or fertilizer unless the weather becomes unusually hot and dry. Furthermore, poppies are quite strong and rapidly populate the surrounding area where they were planted; in case you do not desire this to happen, the poppies can be easily removed.

Pests or diseases rarely become a problem for growing poppies. Aphids can be a problem during the early stages of the plant development. Aphids attack young poppy plants in bud and leave a downy mildew. If this is the case you must spray poppy plants with a hard stream of water to remove aphids. Try not to over-water the poppies and don’t place them too close together to permit plenty of air circulation. This avoids fungal growth.

There are a great variety of other plants known as poppies but which are not true botanical “poppies”. “Papaver Poppies” are the only true poppies. Among the other poppies are the Blue Nepal Poppy, the Oriental Poppy and the Prickly Poppy. These are from other geneses and are not true poppies.

Poppies also have medical purposes. The Opium Poppy (Papaver Somniferum) with sedative and analgesic effects. It was famous for being the universal cure for all because of its numerous applications as to relieve physical and emotional pain not affecting the sensory systems, intellect or motor control; the only problem found is that it is highly addictive and popularly used as a recreational drug.

Growing poppies can be an exciting activity since you have many different varieties to choose from.

All papaver somniferum poppies (opium poppies) are considered illegal in the United States. All other species of papaver are legal to cultivate.