UK gardening - Which red poppies for wild grass area?

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Which red poppies for wild grass area?

Ellie Bentley

2005-09-24, 11:21 am

Hi,

Two weeks ago on "Gardeners' Question Time" R4 one of the panel said it
was time to sew or plant red poppies for a good display next year. I
think she said "African Poppies", but I'm not sure. Does anybody
recall? Or what do people think is the best type of poppy to grow in
moist acidic ground?

Thanks.

Jupiter

2005-09-24, 12:21 pm

On Sat, 24 Sep 2005 14:37:03 +0100, Ellie Bentley
<eleanorrigby@myfreewebmail.com> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>Two weeks ago on "Gardeners' Question Time" R4 one of the panel said it
>was time to sew or plant red poppies for a good display next year. I
>think she said "African Poppies", but I'm not sure. Does anybody
>recall? Or what do people think is the best type of poppy to grow in
>moist acidic ground?
>
>Thanks.

In a wild grass area the common field poppy '(Flanders Field' type)
might be best, but I'm not sure that any poppy would flourish in moist
acidic ground, or where the grass growth is lush. They seem to do
well where it's quite dry and chalky without too much nutrition.

Janet Baraclough

2005-09-24, 2:21 pm

The message <43357e0e@news.greennet.net>
from Ellie Bentley <eleanorrigby@myfreewebmail.com> contains these words:

Or what do people think is the best type of poppy to grow in
> moist acidic ground?

I think there's some confusion here.

Meadows are a longterm planting. Wild red poppies are an annual and
need to grow on bare soil; they only last one summer, then shed their
seed and die. They grow in soil that's laid bare every year, as for
cereal crops.Their tiny seed is to small to compete/survive in a
permanent grass ley. Also, annual poppies don't like wet soil.

If you want to grow red poppies in a permanent wild -grass area, it
would probably have to be the perennial kind, with huge blowsy flowers
the size of a saucer; gorgeous in their own way, but may look out of
scale with meadow wildflowers. You would also have to mow around them
when you mow the rest of the grass area.

Janet.

Jupiter

2005-09-24, 7:21 pm

On Sat, 24 Sep 2005 18:01:43 +0100, Janet Baraclough
<janet.and.john@zetnet.co.uk> wrote:

>The message <43357e0e@news.greennet.net>
>from Ellie Bentley <eleanorrigby@myfreewebmail.com> contains these words:
>
> Or what do people think is the best type of poppy to grow in
>
> I think there's some confusion here.
>
> Meadows are a longterm planting. Wild red poppies are an annual and
>need to grow on bare soil; they only last one summer, then shed their
>seed and die. They grow in soil that's laid bare every year, as for
>cereal crops.Their tiny seed is to small to compete/survive in a
>permanent grass ley. Also, annual poppies don't like wet soil.
>
> If you want to grow red poppies in a permanent wild -grass area, it
>would probably have to be the perennial kind, with huge blowsy flowers
>the size of a saucer; gorgeous in their own way, but may look out of
>scale with meadow wildflowers. You would also have to mow around them
>when you mow the rest of the grass area.
>
> Janet.

Sorry if I contributed to the confusion. Poppies don't grow in
meadows. Field poppies don't need absolutely bare soil. They'll
appear in disturbed soil because the seeds have enormously long
viability and will happily coexist with thin grass cover and the likes
of Speedwell, Myostosis etc. - all chalk lovers of course. I've got
native field poppies, Californian which I planted from seed 3 years
ago going mad and still flowering with loads of new seedlings (now
naturalised) and last year Somniferum appeared. I've saved seed from
them so next year there'll be even more of the those huge blowsy
flowers - annuals again , though.
If I had moist acidic soil I'd be thinking about something like Lilies
Of The Valley and forget about poppies.

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