Iceland Poppies Post-Bloom

[fleemo17]

I was given a half dozen 6" pots of Iceland Poppies as a gift this Christmas. When I received them, they were full of blooms. While I awaited the rain to stop long enough to plant them, most of the flowers bloomed and all I have left are two or three stems with buds waiting to open. My question is whether these plants will rebloom or is the show over? If the flower show is indeed over, is there any point in planting these plants in the garden?

Thanks.

-Fleemo

[sockiescat]

[e-mail] I was given a half dozen 6" pots of Iceland Poppie

as a gift this Christmas. When I received them, they were full of blooms. While I awaited the rain to stop long enough to plant them, most of th flowers bloomed and all I have left are two or three stems with buds waitin to open. My question is whether these plants will rebloom or is the show over? If the flower show is indeed over, is there any point in planting these plants in the garden?

Thanks.

-Fleemo

i dont know if this will help at all fleemo but here you go.

-- sockiescat

[fleemo17]

Thanks Sockiescat, I appreciate the link.

-F

[sockiescat]

[e-mail] Thanks Sockiescat, I appreciate the link.

-F

you are very welcome hope it helped some:). sockiecat.

[frogfog]

actually, i discovered, quite by accident, that poppy seeds are viable FOREVER....even AFTER they've been "roasted" or baked atop bagels, breads, sweets, etc.

if the seed is WHOLE, it WILL germinate. i bought the typical and CHEAP poppy seed (white coloured) in an indian spice store in NYC in 1973 and almost after that, we moved to another house, so the bag got tossed in with a bunch of cooking accessories. the house we moved to wasn't large enough to unpack ALL the boxes, so....yup, this box stayed unpacked with a bunch of others until 1986, when we moved again to a larger house (by the bye, this all happened in SL,UT).

this time, ALL the boxes were unpacked and when i found this bag of poppy seed, i thought, "shoot {{that's the kind of expressions they use in Sl,UT}}, these seeds are too old for anything." but, with me being me, instead of tossing the bag into the garbage, i took it outside and scattered the seed all over the garden, which at this particular time was covered with snow.

next spring rolled around and, of course, i didn't know ANY of what was planted there cuz we'd moved in winter, but i DID notice a bunch of teeny white flowers popping up EVERYWHERE.....it took a while, but THEN!!!! (LIGHTBULB) it hit me!!! POPPING up .. EVERY PLACE i scattered the seeds.....why, shucks, they must be POPPIES!!!!!! sho' nuff---and they reseeded themselves every year we lived in that house until the last year when all about i had in that back yard (it was terraced cuz it was up in the hills) was white and pink crepe-papier looking poppies and spearmint which the people before had planted.

made a nice colour arrangement though....and every late april, early may, i had THE OFFICIAL "Kentucky Colonel" rep for utah show up and buy about 3 to

4 POUNDS of the spearmint for.....yup!! you guessed it: MINT JULEPS!! in OFFICIAL Kentucky Derby Glasses (of whatever particular year it was)....so, in addition to being paid for the spearmint (they KNEW it was organic cuz they knew me), i also have three years of KENTUCKY DERBY GLASSES. hrm...wonder if they're worth anything......IF i can find em. ;o}

anyways, to make a short story long, i stand here to say poppy seeds can be AND ARE viable for a long, long time....and i HAVE picked black poppyseed (those are the Papaver somniferum-opium poppyseed) off bread and bagels and planted 'em and i got a great batch of annual opium poppies whose flowers were about the size of a dinner plate.

it's the BEST seed on earth. in all its forms, names, colours, and under any condition!!!!

i DID find the Papaver nudicaule (Icelandic poppies) grew better in the dry, cooler weather conditions in SL,UT than here, in new hamster. hrm.

[fleemo17]

Thanks for sharin' that tale, Frog. Interesting reading. :)

-Fleemo