Poppies growing from seed in ground

Marsheee

Hello,

I scattered a mixture of types of poppy seeds on the ground in my garden border a few months back and now that they have stated showing through, I’m worried they’ve fallen too closely together in some parts (See attached picture).

Will they still grow and flower this summer if growing this closely? 

Or do I need to thin them out?
I read that they don’t like to be disturbed, so I was just going to leave them but I am unsure about what to do? 

Really hoping for a sea of colourful poppies this summer! 🤞🏻

foxwales

They will be fine, always hard to sow seeds that are so small.  Not all of those may reach flower, but I bet the majority will.

Dirty Harry

I'd thin any that were obviously too close to each other.

punkdoc

I would thin them out, you will get much better flowers. They are quite large plants.

peteS

I've got a packet of the plum coloured somniferum type I wish to sow in the next few days, but have the seedlings proved to be susceptible to slugs and snails, because I know some plants and foliage are liked more than others, and I have so many of the pests in my yard, any seedlings in the ground would be wiped out within hours if they are on their liked list. The reason I ask is because I'm debating whether to start them off in pots to give them a chance to grow a bit before planting out.

JennyJ

They don't transplant very well for me, probably because they have a tap root. The self-sown ones don't seem to be eaten by anything as far as I can tell, but you could try sowing individually so that they don't need pricking out (or a few per pot and thin out)

punkdoc

Perennial oriental poppies have a tap root, annual opium poppies don't.
If I am growing the very dark annual poppies I start them in modules and it works very well, a tip I picked up from reading "Christo"

JennyJ

When I pull up my annual opium poppies after they've done their thing, they always have a single long thick root like a skinny carrot, occasionally forked but with only a few fine roots coming off it. Apologies if I've misled anyone by calling that a tap root.

By contrast on the few occasions when I've dug up a perennial oriental poppy, they've had a mass of thick fleshy roots (great for root cuttings). Maybe mine don't behave normally  . Whatever, I've never succeeded with transplanting annual poppy seedlings.

peteS

Thanks for all that info, one last thing. What is the best way of sowing the seeds, do I sow them on the surface and leave them uncovered, or put a covering of soil over them, because I've read of both ways being used. 

JennyJ

Poppies need light to germinate, so just press gently into the surface of the compost. I would water the pots first too, to avoid washing the fine seeds too deep or down the side of the pot.

peteS

Sorry one last thing. I might try, both sowing them in situ and using those biodegradable fibre pots with a plant in each, then planted out. When using those pots is it best to use soil from the garden, or compost.