Comments on: An Introduction to Poppies

By: admin Matt

admin Matt — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 05:30:49 +0000

In reply to Marozia2020.

Oh God. the horror stories. The way I see it – there is so much heroin in my neighborhood already that my pathetic poppies are pretty safe! This year we grew 8 pot plants too (maybe I’m nearing that age?) but we don’t smoke. Just for Christmas gifts, we say. Half of it is CBD strains (‘Lifter’, which I may try becaise I would end up in the emergency room if I smoked real THC pot. Both are legal here in Mass anyway – and I bought the seedlings in Vermont at a large retail nursery where they were being sold next to the heirloom tomatoes. Now that it’s legal, it’s not as fun to grow anymore! I would never dare use my own poppy seeds, but yes – people are going to be people and do stupid things.Opium straw was a ‘thing’ at one time (read about it in an old book, but again, I’m only going to save that info for our apocalypse plan (or for after the election).

By: Marozia2020

Marozia2020 — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 23:32:05 +0000

For the record, it’s only illegal to grow opium poppies in the US if they are grown with the intention of producing opium or heroin, and very few home growers are going to have enough plants to fall under suspicion. (A man not too far from me was arrested this year for that crime, but they seized something like 4,000 plants from his property, not a mixed border’s worth.) It’s a silly law anyway, as the amount of poppies one would have to grow to produce any appreciable amount of drug is ludicrous, this is not my dad’s stand of pot we’re talking about here.
This Halloween, I’m going to tell my children the horrifying tale of the day in 1987 when the DEA descended on Monticello, and threatened staff with arrest and prosecution if they did not rid the estate of poppies; said staff, not being paid enough to deal with that crap, destroyed stands of p. sominferum that had been self-seeding since Jefferson’s time. Employees were so frightened they burned gift shop T-shirts, because they were silk-screened with images of the poppies.
I expect to see more hysteria with the rise of “unwashed poppy seed tea”, which has actually killed a few people. I was confused about this until I started doing research on alkaloid content and growing poppies for breadseed, and learned that when grown for culinary seed, it’s important to not bruise or damage the ripening pod in any way, or else you can cause the seeds to be contaminated with alkaloid-containing latex. My theory is that growers in opium regions are harvesting and selling the seeds from pods that have been scored to harvest the latex. Not only does that allow the latex to dope up the seeds, but they also use cultivars with MUCH higher alkaloid contents than anything the home grower will find (although Lauren’s Grape and Queen’s Poppy are pretty darn high).
Anyway. Every time I post a picture of my Oriental or Shirley poppies on social media, I am inevitably informed that my garden is felonious.

By: Unknown

Unknown — Sun, 11 Feb 2018 21:52:25 +0000

I found a Papaver variety along the Canadian Pacific railroad tracks in BC Canada I call "Railroad Red". It's blooms last and are like giant Carnations! I've given the seed away inside BC and Alberta, but unfortunately mailing seed into the USA is now a big no-no. Thompson & Morgan has such a huge demand in Europe for their seeds we no long get them either, even though their distributor still has them on their website. I wish I could upload a photo of these beauties!!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Jun 2017 06:06:23 +0000

In reply to Nell Jean. We live in the Florida panhandle, can we grow poppies here? I love them. I would appreciate an answer. Thank you.

By: FFF

FFF — Mon, 26 Jun 2017 23:15:08 +0000

I'm also wondering if I'll have any success growing poppies (starting them in containers) in late June in zone 7A (Martha's Vineyard). My daughter brought me poppy pods (no one has mentioned pods?) from Bavaria (loved the packaging!)that we think are the California poppy type.

By: Unknown

Unknown — Sat, 06 May 2017 17:48:52 +0000

Thanks so much for this information. I live in Zine 7 in NC and ordered poppies from Brecks last year. They were planted in the fall and now I am struggling with these plants. The flowers are rotting before actually blooming, they are much larger than I thought so the have become very crowded with my other plants. So with this info I've learned they don't like the fertilizer and the rain that we've had. I'll just let them alone and then decide what to do later in the season. I did have one huge orange flower but it only lasted one day, which was disappointing. I'm a relatively new Gardner and like planting flowers that I can cut to have in my house. These poppies are more trouble than I've bargained for. But, we'll see! Thanks!

By: Elizabeth Golding

Elizabeth Golding — Sat, 01 Apr 2017 21:31:21 +0000

My garden is between zone 5 and 6A. The only place I get a fair amount of sun is on my deck. Can poppies grow in pots? Would they be alright with just afternoon sun?

Thank you for your well-written article.

By: Unknown

Unknown — Sun, 19 Feb 2017 19:27:47 +0000

Here in Massachusetts I can tell you that P. setigerum grows with weed-like vigor, and comes up reliably year-after-year

By: Unknown

Unknown — Sat, 18 Feb 2017 15:58:50 +0000

In New England I have had great success with P. Setigerum; they are weed-like in their hardiness and pop right up year-after-year.

By: Unknown

Unknown — Sat, 19 Oct 2013 20:29:15 +0000

Matt: I'd like to plant an assortment of poppy seeds in my cottage garden in Hull, MA. Do I have to wait until spring or can I plant them now?