Dianna's Purple Poppies - Although we had a late start on sowing seed this spring, we did have a decent crop of these highly decorative Papaver paeoniflorum. Poppy seeds are sown on TOP of the soil because they need light to germinate and our heavy rainfall this spring - 30+ inches in 6 weeks with only a handful of "dry" days - caused much stress in April and May because the fine seed washed away twice before the weather cooperated. The volunteers scattered throughout the garden under trees and overhangs from spilled pods last year came up fine however - so we'll sow seed this fall after the ground freezes and cover the spaces with netting to keep the resident quail from happily searching out the seeds before their germination in early spring. Our wild quail take "dust baths" under the overhangs, forming cute little depressions in the driest areas during the summer, and in Fall hide out under our rhubarb clumps during rainstorms waiting for a moment to sneak out to munch. As I look outside this morning, both they and the next-door chickens are greedily consuming our newly planted oats on the north edge of the field. We sow the cover crops heavy, expecting some loss from the wildlife (and fowl escapees) - but using a cover crop makes our soil so wonderful for planting the next spring that the birds are generally forgiven.
Our strain of poppies makes smaller than normal pods - so even though the flowers are 4 to 5 inches in size - it takes a lot of ripened seed for both the catalogs and the spring flower shows. This year we only pre-sold packets until August then removed them from sale until we could judge the harvest. Seed production was better than expected and we've made the "add to cart" buttons active again on the website, but there are no guarantee there will be any packets left for the spring flower shows. Poppy seeds will NOT be in the Spring 2012 catalog so it is advised that you order now.
You can add one or more packets to an existing order on file without any extra shipping costs. For customer who only ordered poppy seed for this fall - or paid to have it shipped early - Anne Marie will mail out the "seed only" orders from the office on Tuesday and Wednesday while we are still digging lily bulbs.
To add a packets of poppy seed to an order ALREADY on file - simply use the "contact us" form on the website and we'll charge whatever card you used for the bulbs before shipping.
If you also wish to add a few lily bulbs with the seed - or place a totally new order of ONLY poppy seed - please use the website checkout. If we are combining lily bulb orders or adding poppy seeds to your order, we'll adjust the shipping charge before charging your card.
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