Poppy rotting

allymountain13

Bought a big red poppy last year. Foliage lovely but the flower opened at soil level! This yr. the foliage is even more beautiful but  deep down in the centre, the shoots are brown and wet. What's wrong?

Posy

Oriental poppies are pretty tough. Can you say more about your soil, drainage and light levels?

allymountain13

Soil is close to neutral but does have a touch of alkaline. Good loam well drained, against a fence facing east so gets full sun in mornings.

Posy

It ought to be fine. The winter hasn't been too bad. I don't know,  perhaps someone wiser will comment.

Hostafan1

I used to have Patty's Plum, but one year she did the same, rotted off for no good reason.

Lyn

 I’ve got a big one that blooms with whopping great flowers but I wondered if it would do any better in full sun, it’s in shade at the moment and hardly gets sun at all, if so, could I move it now? 

Posy

You can move them but they sulk a bit. Dig as deep as you can, the root goes down miles and is very brittle.

Fairygirl

I wonder if that's just a weather issue with ally's poppy. 
Did it get snowed on, which has then thawed in the crown, causing an excess of damp there? 
The fact that it's already flowered too- it seems very early, but perhaps because of the unseasonal warmth last month, it had a spurt, and then sudden wet/cold. With it facing east - maybe it's a bit like Camellia buds/flowers getting damaged  after frosts. 

Not sure if that makes any sense, so ignore me if that's the case!

Lyn

Posy said:

You can move them but they sulk a bit. Dig as deep as you can, the root goes down miles and is very brittle.

If they have a deep tap root I’m inclined to leave it where it is, thank you for advise. 

Hostafan1

scrape away the soil and cut a root in August and use it for root cuttings.

Lyn

@Hostafan1.  Good idea, I’ll do that. Thank you.  But my original question was, should it be in full sun or shade?