Hi Grace-
Well, as for timing, someone else will have to chime in for Z6. I'm in NH in Z5, and I sprinkled mine on March 7th, so as far as them getting any sort of needed cold strat (if they even do, I'm not entirely sure, which is why I'm avoiding answering that part), although I did just read in a search of another Z6er who says to sow RIGHT after last frost, so you might be just in time. But I'd wait for others in your zone to chime in.

How: I just sprinkle wildly. If I have only a few of one kind, I do sprinkle them in a clump, but otherwise, I just don't worry about who's where; I'm just not that anal about it.

What to look for: The seedlings will be pretty distinct from weeds. They look a lot like a little clump of light-green lettuce. And since they tend to take their time in showing up (mine will show up sometime around Mother's Day, as I recall), they are usually about the same size as weeds when I finally see them. I have a bed dedicated to poppies, so I go out and pluck the little weedies before they get too big. It's a little chore, but I can't really do it until the poppies are big enough to look like that lettuc-y thing and I don't take the chance of pulling up the wrong thing before that. Here's a pic I found:

{{gwi:661300}}

Hope you can still get them in!

I'm actually in zone 5...Northeastern PA. My last frost date isn't til the middle of next month, I believe. From the sounds of it.....I'm a little late but caught it in time. We're having a rainy/cold spell right now. I'm going to spend the next day or so looking for pics and trying to visualize a new plan for this year.

Thanks so much for the seedling pic! That does look like something "on purpose". lol

Scatter all over the place. They grow in clumps. Bait for snails with Sluggo.

Edna

I am definitely not in your zone, but this is how I plant poppy seeds.

Combine the seeds with twice as much sugar as seeds and they will more likely be spaced ok. Plus the sugar will feed them. Sprinkle them with your fingers, just like you sprinkle sugar.
From experience, I know you can transplant them when they are tiny. Right after they get their first leaves.

Let the seed heads dry on the plant until you can hear the seeds rattle inside and the little hat pops up. Sprinkle some of the seeds where you want them to grow next year.
Save the other half to plant next spring.
I have better luck with seeds I plant at the time they would be falling to the ground naturally.

Yes, sprinkle. I think they look like hairy lettuce.

I'm not even sure whether these poppies will only bloom for a certain time (like iris or lily) or if they continue to bloom thru the season.

Poppies bloom for a short time, drop their petals and those lovely seed pods form. They won't all bloom on the same day, or even the same week, so you'll have poppies for a short time.

My goal is to try my best to make this bed look full...full of green and full of color.

A cottage bed looks better, IMHO, with more than one species, so I plant poppies of more than one kind -- breadseed poppies, corn poppies, California poppies with larkspur, snapdragons, dianthus and nicotiana, among others. Bloom times will overlap. I plant lots of silene, or catchfly, which blooms a little later than the poppies.

When to plant poppies has many different opinions. We plant them in November and December because our fall lasts a long time. You could try scattering some seeds in September or over the snow as well as in the spring, to see which works best in your garden -- fall planting or spring planting.

Kathy's method of scattering directly from the dry seed pods after bloom works really well if you aren't digging around in there planting something else all the time the way I do, and heaping mulch around something else. That's why I wait for fall, so the poppy seeds don't get covered.

Nell

It depends what type of poppies you grow. Ornamental poppies have an especially short growing season. Although they are beautiful, they bloom in the morning and the flower is spent by dusk. Papavers are As cool season growers and should be planted only when extreme heat or extreme cold is not anticipated!

Golden poppies will bloom all spring/early summer. Check out the pictures I linked below.

Here is a link that might be useful: California Poppies

Do we know how California poppies fare in the colder zones? They do not bloom here when the heat and humidity get really high, but the ones that have not bloomed when it gets hot, hot will mostly survive to the next year. They bloom over a longer period than breadseed and corn poppies, but not for months, just weeks.

I forgot about Oriental poppies, too. They don't do well here. Who can tell us about the perennial poppies? Are they usually bought as plants rather than in seed packets?

Iceland poppies are another annual choice -- they're very short-lived here, but so beautiful. I only have one Iceland poppy this year and it doesn't look very happy. Too much rain, too much warm. It should be happy tomorrow night, when it is predicted to freeze.

Nell

I have raised the oriental (perennial) poppies from seed inside under lights. The kicker is they do not transplant well. Still, I have three Princess Victoria Louise doing nicely from a few years back. I did a Royal Wedding (white) but it didn't live long, maybe 2 years.

They might be a good one to do in paper or peat pots to plant directly in the soil.

I have a tray of various poppies that still hasn't germinated, I have cold treated them, moved them inside under lights, back out side, and still nothing. It was older seeds, but so is the flat of red somniferums that I transplanted last week using the clump method and they are looking great.

Gardening is not an exact science.

btw, "full of green & full of color" is subjective.

My poppy bed is an Iris bed first, then when they go by the poppies are just ready to come out, and by July, the poppies look like HE::, but since I like to collect the seed, I have to bear it for a couple weeks. After I collect the seeds, I rip them all out, and put in cosmos for the rest of the season (I sow those about Mid-May but no later than June 1 so they are ready to plant out when the poppies poop.)

In case that's useful at all. If you're looking for green & color all season, definitely plant other things with your poppies.

I don't think CA. Poppies like humidity. The picture I attached in the thread above is a very arid and dry place.

I would love to grow the Himalayan poppy but they wouldn't thrive here :-(

I plant poppies in the spring here. The small poppies I just sprinkle seed in may and they bloom end of July and Aug. The larger poppies I start indoors under lights and transplant out around the last frost date. I started orientals from seed years ago...and transplanted...they have done well. Some of them rebloom again throughout the summer and into the fall. You can also buy the oriental poppy roots in bags and from mail order. I tried the himalayan poppy from seed. Made it through the the first year in pots.....brought back inside for the winter,they made it till about Feb and then decided to die off. So I never saw the blooms. That was disappointing. We don't get humidity here, so that is not a problem and neither is summer heat. We get summer frosts. With ice in the name....iceland poppies do really well here for me. I actually let them self-seed and they do great...although they have reverted to mostly white with a few different colours...and bi-colours. They are a short lived perennial here.

Sierra

That's too bad, Sierra. I would have thought Himalayan poppies would thrive in your zone. They grow wild in Scotland and grow well in Victoria, Canada (having seen TM's picture of his trip there).

Edna, Victoria is on Vancouver Island, and is zone 7 or zone 9...I forget now. It gets really hot there in the summer and as a rule they don't get much snow in winter. I live up north on a mountain, zone 2. I still have a good 3 feet of snow....it has finally started melting though...we lost about a foot of snow in the last few days. We can get frosts in the summer here.

I am guessing TM was at Butchard Gardens. Beautiful gardens if anyone ever gets a chance to go there....but not anywhere near where I live.

Sierra

You hadn't mentioned the type of poppies you are growing. I'm from Ontario, Canada - colder than Pennsylvannia and I grow various types of poppies.

I have grown oriental poppies which are perennials and so if you are planning to grow these, best site your planting area well. - they don't transplant easily. (Someone mentioned difficulty transplanting them from seed - the best way is to germinate them in peat pots so you can simply rip off the bottom of the pot and set it in the ground - plant & pot with the least root disturbance)

I've grown california poppies which are annuals in this zone. Beautiful when mixed with my wildflower border. I think it's a perennial in warmer zones.

I've also grown peony poppies or other poppies that are considered papapver somniferon - which are annuals. Best seeded in drifts but they don't grow well when closely clumped together - so you will need to thin out the seedlings once they show true leaves.

I've also grown icelandic poppies - which are perennials in this zone anyway, very low growing plant. Very sweet looking.

And I've grown other annual poppies like the Canadian' red legion poppies - best used in waves or drifts.

Re the Himalayan poppies - there are only a few places in Canada where they were grown successfully (one in Buchart and the other in Montreal). It's not exactly an easy plant to grow. Certainly won't grow wild in Canada.

Ianna

Red Legion poppies might be sold as Corn poppies, or Shirley poppies, or Flanders poppies (Papaver rhoeas. They are perhaps the easiest to grow.
State Highway Departments throughout the U.S. have begun planting Red Corn Poppies along their roadsides for motorists to enjoy. They are spectacular heavily seeded in an isolated area.

I have one palest pink Iceland poppy this year. If I lived in one of the cooler zones, I would try for great swaths of them, so pretty in mostly citrus shades, including grapefruit, LOL.

So, LC Grace, have you scattered those poppy seeds yet?

Nell

I made a little 'Primer' of the poppies blooming here now.

Here is a link that might be useful: Poppy Primer

I scattered my seeds a few days ago. I had quite a few pkts of mixed "Somniferum" seeds. I had a ruffled poppy, a lavender poppy, a pink, a "linen" poppy ~ sounds so pretty! I scratched the surface and moved the bark mulch to the side and sprinkled. *fingers crossed!* We'll see what happens. I finished before a 24 hr spell of light rain sprinkles. Only time will tell! Thanks for your thoughts and pics! :)

The blue Meconopsis are tricky things but the yellow Meconopsis cambrica aka Welsh poppy is an easy self sowing annual for shady places in temperate climates. They grow for me where I have ferns and hellebores and self seed abundantly.

My neighbor give me a fairly nice size perennial poppy in a pot. Should I wait 'till after the frost to put it in the ground? I live in Pa.

Neighbor give me a perennial poppy in a pot. I forgot to say that it was an established plant which came up this spring. She dug them up and potted them to give away. Can I plant it immediately or should I wait 'till after the frost. I live Pa. near Pittsburgh.

bubba, you should have placed them directly in the ground as soon as you received it. I'm assuming the plant is somewhat dormant still and early spring is usually the best time to transplant plants. It won't 'feel' a thing and will 'wake up' unware that it's been moved.

However since right now the weather is a bit unpredictable and I know being in Ontario, Canada, we tend to share the same weather patterns. So I can't tell how the grounds will be when frost hits. So my suggestion as a temporary measure is for you to dig a hole and plunk your potted plant entirely and cover with mulch or a cloche. I'm suggesting this so you don't disturb the roots yet again, the mulch to keep the temps steady, the cloche(a plastic soda bottle will do) to protect the leaves (if it already emerged). And when teh weather warms up, plunk it down in the ground immediately and give it a good watering.

To Ianna: Thanks, I will take your advice as soon as it stops raining this week. Leaves are about 6" to 8" long.
Again thanks, two other neighbors have them too, so I'll let them know

The one thing about perennial (oriental) poppies is that they hate being moved so choose your site well.

Since we share the same weather system, it's been raining on my end too. Dreadful and yet plants need it.