According to Martha's head gardener

Every year Martha and I grow dozens of poppy seeds. These must-have flowers are easy to grow and keep in the garden for many years and attract pollers such as bees and butterflies. We build them for their beauty and reliability – I know that they appear and appear again in the whole garden every year. People tend to bloom and fill gaps in the landscape right after all feather lamps faded. They are also manual flowers that require much less work and maintenance than other flowers.

They are available in different colors, styles, shapes and textures, so there are a variety of looks that you want to reach. We mainly grow three to four species: Oriental poppies (Papaver Orientale), Breadsed Poppy (Papaver somniferum), Field poppy (Papaver Rhoe) and sometimes Iceland poppies (Papaver Nudacy). Under these species, we grow dozens of varieties and mixtures, try out new varieties every year and have those we are currently growing hybridized, which leads to many beautiful color and petals combinations the following year.

If you want to grow poppies in your garden, I share my best tips for planting and maintaining these flowers.

Select the correct plant location

Plant poppy seeds in a place where the full sun gets and loose, crumbling soil to ensure the strongest and healthiest plants. Annual varieties are strongly new and plant them where they have some space to spread and install themselves. Oriental poppy flowers are perennials that form a large lump and should be planted in an area in which they can remain permanently.

When choosing a plant location for poppy flowers, keep in mind that you are a bit short -lived. Not long after you have ended the flower, the whole plant dies and has to be lowered. So put them in a place where your absence is not noticed, as if summer flowering in the emptiness that you leave would grow.

Plant at the right time

P and poppies are generally planted from the seed in the late winter. In contrast to other flowers that have to be started in tablets, poppy seeds can be scattered outside at the end of February or early March when there is still some snow on the floor. The seeds will settle into the ground when the last piece of snow melts.

An exception to this are oriental poppy flowers, which are usually planted from containers in early spring and can take a few years to establish themselves.

Plant several varieties

Planting several types of poppy flowers is a must. In this way you can extend the flowering period by a few weeks because different varieties bloom at different times.

Most styles and colors mix seamlessly, so it is easy to mix them and create a beautiful display. Oriental poppy flowers are great as a heart with their thick, dark green leaves and high, wiry stems, while the others are great as fillers between plants such as lupins, roses and daisy.

Provide appropriate water

While some types of poppy seeds can withstand a little drought, most thin, sensitive plants that look best when they are regularly watered are. In general, normal spring rain should be enough, but if it is a dry season, additional irrigation is a good idea.

Regular irrigation is particularly important for poppy seeds because they are tiny and sensitive. Nevertheless, too much water can lead to fungal diseases, so do not overdo it.

Look for pests and diseases

Poppies have very few problems with insects and diseases. You can occasionally get aphids, but these can be treated with a sharp water tip. Mushroom diseases are the main concern for poppies and they are usually caused by too much moisture around the root crown. Pull out sick plants so that the problem does not spread and cut back the water level if necessary.

Take

Poppies have thin, wiry stems, but their petals are not difficult, so they usually do not need support. If you feel like stem, especially when you bloom, wrap the entire plant around a bamboo or a branch with a cord.

A species that sometimes has to be set is oriental poppy flowers. A simple trick is to place a peony cage (or another shorter cage like a small tomato cage) over the plant if it is still early in the season so that the leaves can grow through it, hide the cage and support the plant.

Wait for Deadhead

Deadheading is something that you normally want to hold when growing poppy flowers. After the petals have dropped, poppy flowers have very different and attractive seed capsules. (Some types of poppy seeds are bred especially for these heads!) The used stems give the garden a nice look.

Even more important than the aesthetics and poppy flowers develop seeds in these pods, which they fall and spread for flowers from the next year. I usually wait for Deadhead until the pods have filled out their propagation windows, dried and opened. At Deadheading I cut out the pods and save the seeds for the next year. When cropping, I cut the plant onto the floor. I avoid pulling the plants out of the ground because the roots sometimes give me a second year.