Easy poppy growing for lovely flowers and seeds

Poppies are hardy perennial or annual plants that are easy to grow and perfect for filling gaps in borders or in fallow flower beds. Here's everything you need to know about this fascinating plant.

Opium poppy (Papaver somniferum):

• Grows up to 1.2 metres. It has large serrated silver-green leaves and flowers with four white to purple petals. Flowers are followed by globular lidded seed capsules which release a mature seed when opened.
• The wall of the green capsule seeps a bitter milky juice when scratched.
• There are highly popular ornamental types, such as Danish Flag, a variety with white and red flower dating from the nineteenth century, or Hen and Chickens, an older variety that has a small ring of flowers around each large flower.
• The most popular varieties are those with peony flowers (group Paeoniiflorum) such as the White Cloud, Black Peony and Flemish Antique.

Poppy (P. rhoeas):

• It has four bright red petals, sometimes with a dark spot in the centre.
• It produces two ornamental forms: Shirley and Mother of Pearl.

California poppy (E. californica):

• Native to the Western United States, with a Mexican subspecies, which can be found as far south as the Sonoran Desert, it is resistant to heat and drought. Its finely divided leaves are a blue-green colour, and it has many silky flowers with four petals ranging from orange to lemon yellow.
• Ornamental strains include 'Ballerina', with single, semi-double and double fluted flowers in red, pink, orange and yellow.

All poppies need a well-drained and sunny soil.

• Poppies should not be transplanted.
• Sow seeds thinly and evenly, after mixing with dry sand. If you sow every four to six weeks from early spring, you will have flowers throughout summer and autumn.

To care for your poppy,simply weed regularly.

Collect and dry the parts above ground and petals when the flowers are fully bloomed. Collect the ripe seed capsules and dry them.

And that is all you need to know about poppies. Their flowers are a pretty complement to your garden and you can harvest their delicious seeds.