Poppy sowing

[Eeilee]

When do you all sow your poppy seeds? I’m wanting to add some to my garden but the sowing methods vary wildly from what I’ve seen. Cold stratification ( sow in late fall) or sow in early spring?

 

[cpp gardener]

Welcome to the forums Eilee!
I don’t grow a lot of poppies, but Spring is probably best. Most of them don’t require cold stratification.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

There are so many varieties of poppy there are bound to be differences, but for most I don't think it matters very much, they are tough little things, but they need light to germinate. They say the poppy seeds in Flanders had lain dormant for years, but shelling on the battlefields brought them to the surface and exposed them to light. I suppose if you want poppies in a particular place it is different, but I just shake the ripe seed pods about, there are so many seeds some are bound to make it in the right sort of place, and if they are in completely the wrong place I just hoe them in. Maybe different too if you want something special like a Tibetan blue one.

 

[LouisFerdinand]

How to sow poppies