Poppy fever: choose from a world of colorful beauties - Garden & Outdoor Living

Sunset, Sept, 2003 by Jim McCausland

Opium poppy

Gardeners admire its 4- to 5-inch-wide blossoms in shades of plum, red, pink, and white. Bakers mix its seed into cakes and pastries. But the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) has another side. The sap from its green seed pod yields not only the morphine that physicians have used to ease severe pain but also the opium and heroin that have enslaved addicts for centuries.

The opium poppy presents a legal dichotomy in the United States: Federal law allows the sale and purchase of seeds but makes it a felony to possess the plants. Enforcement is uneven, but the penalties are harsh. Even so, the opium poppy is commonly sold under names like annual poppy, Asian poppy, breadbox poppy, breadseed poppy, Turkish poppy, Papaver laciniatum, P. paeoniflorum, and P. setigerum.

Sowing tips

Most poppies grow easily from seeds sown in tilled, amended soil. The trick is to sow thinly; do that by mixing the tiny seeds with sand before you scatter. After sowing, rake in the seeds, or cover them with a thin sprinkling of sand. Don't cover Oriental poppy seeds; they need light to germinate.

When seedlings emerge, thin them so there's 1 foot between California, Flanders, Himalayan, Iceland, and. Welsh poppies, 2 feet between Oriental poppies.

Fall-sown seeds may lie dormant for months before they germinate. Spring-sown seeds usually germinate as soon as the soil temperature rises into the mid-50s.