Sadly, I have no clue what to do. Just don't let the seed pods go to seed and keep digging them up trying not to leave any root behind.

I'm sure someone who knows more will post.

Now, if they are deep red, and I don't mean the orange-red, you can always send them my way! Haha, I'd love to have the yard filled with them.

I have lots of yard that I don't bother with because it is too big for me and that is where my poppies are. But, I do realize they take up a lot of space. I hope you get some helpful tips!

J.

I'd also be interested in having a few - orange-red or deep red - if you feel like digging some up to share! Will you be coming the the spring swap? If not, maybe those interested could mail you an envelope for you to mail back with a few roots or seeds? Where do you live?

Marj

I know this is of no help to you, crittermom, but I, too, would love to have some poppies in my yard. I had some growing in my back yard and they started to spread a bit - I let them freely reseed because I wanted more of them - but they went into a decline and have all died off. These were the classic/heirloom orange-red poppies and I thought they were beautiful. You must have ideal conditions for them in your yard.

I agree with jclepine; dead head the poppies so they can't go to seed. Normally, except in your yard where the poppies think the soil is delicious, poppies don't like to be disturbed so I would have thought just digging into their roots would have killed them.

Other then that, guess you are just going to have to spread the wealth and give the rest of us cuttings and seeds. :-D

Holly

Ha, funny that I"m trying to get rid of them and others can't get them going! If they continue to come up and I end up digging a bunch more, I can try potting some up, then maybe send them your way. I have two kinds..One is a large orange double, and the other is just a big orange single. Both very pretty, just in really bad spots. I'll let you all know if I dig some more!

Hi, Sam. Count me among those who'd love to have some! Whereabouts are you? I'm a part time Estes Park resident and will be visiting late this week and next. :)

I'm in Loveland. Unfortunately I sprayed them with roundup again last week, so the leaves are looking a little wilted, but I'll check them today to see how they are looking. I have a big clump in the front yard that I bet is okay, so if it is, Ill dig it this weekend, as well as any little ones that are popping up and I'll post on here to see if anyone wants them.

Me too. I mean, I'll take some. Are you coming to the Spring exchange? I can't believe Roundup doesn't kill them.

I haven't had time to reply here--been having too much fun potting things up for the swap! But if you're gonna be digging in there, Sam, there's something you need to know!

At the Spring Swap, I'm planning to show people how to propagate Oriental poppies from ROOT CUTTINGS! I'll be using root pieces that are about an inch long---so---in other words, when you're digging around the poppies, ANY little pieces of root that are broken off are going to rematerialize as NEW, big, beautiful plants! Like the Magic Broom in Fantasia, it multiplies! Just exactly what you DON'T want!

Since you sprayed them with Roundup, I recommend you wait at least another full week to determine what has and has not been effected/knocked down/killed before you attempt to dig any to give away. Roundup takes a while to get in thru the foliage to the roots to have any effect, and after just one week, there's still stuff going on that you can't see yet. Also, being this early in spring, I'm guessing that there are a lot of individual plants that haven't even put in an appearance yet, and if they didn't have any foliage yet, the Roundup won't effect them at all. When you see plants that are looking strong and healthy in a couple weeks, you should be safe digging to give away.

Now back to the "Magic Roots!" When you're planning to try to dig the plants/roots to give some away, I recommend you water the area VERY thoroughly 24 to 48 hours before you plan to start digging. That should help at least some in letting you dig/pull the roots out in whole, or at least larger, pieces, since the more small pieces you leave in there, the more plants you're gonna get. You need to water far enough ahead that you don't wind up trying to dig in mud. Ideally the soil would be soft enough to break up easily, more or less "falling" off of the roots! (But if you have typical Colorado clay, "ideally" probably isn't gonna happen!)

But for trying to get rid of them, because of the problem with the multiplying roots, I think your best bet is to keep spraying them! Do everything you can to get them actively growing to get as much foliage as possible, and then spray, hitting ALL of the foliage, and leave them sit for 2-3 weeks---and repeat! (If you happen to have any of them growing into a grass/lawn area, Weed-B-Gon will work on the poppies the same as Roundup, but without killing the grass.) And remember that they'll go dormant as soon as it starts to get hot out, so do as much as you can before "summer" gets here! They usually re-grow some foliage when it cools again in fall, and you could continue your "eradication project" then! And as everybody else has said, be sure if any of them bloom, you don't leave the seedheads on long enough to drop seed!

Do you know about our Spring Swap? This one is gonna be in Thornton, on the north end of the Metro area, so it's not too far away from you! If you should decide to come, I'd love a few of the double orange roots to use in my propagation demo! :-)

Kinda funny how one person's Trash is another person's Treasure!

I'll link the swap thread below so you can find out more in case you haven't seen it yet!

Welcome to RMG,
Skybird

Here is a link that might be useful: Spring Swap - 2011

Thanks, Skybird, and everyone else for the responses. I went out and checked out what I had sprayed with roundup last week, and what is there seems to be dying. There are more little ones still showing up though, and I'll give them a little bit and then dig up a few of the roots and try to offer them. Sorry I didn't post sooner, or I could've provided ALL of you with plenty to put in your yards! Skybird, I thought the spring swap sounds interesting, but Unfortunately, now that I may have killed a high-demand item =), I don't know if I'd have anything to bring yet, as my landscaping (bsides the poppies, a few ditch type daylilies) is new, and hasn't multiplied yet. I'll try to get you some roots from where the double poppy was growing, but I think there may have been a single there too, So I can't be 100% that it will be from the double. Let me know, though, if you still want it.

Thanks again, and I look forward to beign a part of the forum!

Check down at the "Our Primary Swap Rule" part of my first post on the swap thread, Sam! You don't need to have anything to bring to the swap in order to come---and GET plants! Of course, food for the pot luck is always welcome! :-)

I suspect you're going to have plenty of poppies coming up yet that you didn't get with the Roundup! And I also suspect that at least some of the ones you did spray aren't gonna really die! It's still a couple months till the swap, so keep an eye on what's going on out there (as if you wouldn't!), and if you want to continue with your eradication project, which I assume you do, just dig up some of the good looking smaller ones and stick them in pots before you spray the next time.

The roots obviously couldn't be dug up this early, but if you found one with fairly big roots and stuck it in a gallon or bigger pot, we could just dump it out of the pot on the day of the swap to cut off a couple of the roots. Or if there's a plant coming up "on the end" or somewhere where you could avoid it with the Roundup for now, you could dig up a couple pieces of roots the day before the swap. What I need for the demo is 6-10" of root that's at least an eighth of an inch in diameter--bigger than that is better, and I need to know which is the "top" and the "bottom" of the root! I just said the double because I was thinking if people googled it, they'd be more interested in that than the single, but it doesn't make any difference at all for purposes of the demo! Last time I did the demo, Jennifer brought a couple roots, but she lives out in chilly Nederland and can't be absolutely positive what the weather is gonna be like (last time I did it at the Fall Swap!)---and if the soil will be diggable to get the roots, so if you're able to come, weather conditions would be taken out of the equation! If you can't come for any reason, or you really don't wind up with any healthy plants, I'm sure I can find somebody to bring a couple pieces of root, so don't worry about it!

Let me know in about a month if you think you may be able to bring some root. That gives me plenty of time to find out if Jennifer will be able to bring some, or to find another source.

Hope you're able to come,
Skybird

Hi Crittermom, I'd love to take those off you hands along with about a dozen others. :) I've been working on planting them for 2 years with no success. Maybe this will be my year. :) Good luck.

So glad to get back onto this forum!
I too would be very interested in oriental poppies, just moving into my new home and it is nothing but soil and pine trees - no green!!!

I don't know where all of you people live, but I would love to get rid of all our poppies. They are orange and big!!