Growing Poppies

Introduction to Growing Poppies in New Zealand

Growing poppies is simple – just sow and walk away! These plants thrive on neglect.

Read on to find out how to get free seeds.

I am talking about the blood red poppies associated with ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day. Also called Flanders Poppies or Corn Poppies or to give them their correct name – Papaver rhoeas. Not to be confused with Iceland Poppy (P. nudicaule), Orientale Poppy (P. orientale). Also not to be mixed up with edible poppy seeds and opium poppies (P. somniferum).

This is a super tough plant. Gardeners have even germinated poppies from seeds recovered from Egyptian tombs.

If you sow your own poppy seeds around ANZAC Day (April 25) then you will be rewarded with great flowers in the New Zealand spring. The symbolism of these poppies dates back one hundred years ago to the Western Front in northern France and Belgium. Poppies flowered in the war-devastated fields amongst tremendous loss of life despite the farmland being completely torn up by the fighting.

The conflict was recorded by John McCrae – a Canadian doctor – in a now famous poem “In Flanders Fields” after he had buried a young friend. The words are at the foot of this article.

Conditions for Growing Poppies in a GreenSmart Pot

Poppies are simple to grow. They like well drained soil, full sun and don’t need fertilising. They don’t take kindly to being transplanted so it is best to sow seeds. Simply fill a GreenSmart pot with potting mix and sprinkle a one cm deep layer of seed raising mix on the surface. Spray water on the surface so that the reservoir becomes half full as shown on the water gauge then sprinkle the seeds on the surface so they are about a thumb width apart. Spread a very thin layer of seed raising mix over the top of the seeds. The seeds are very small. It will take a couple of weeks for the plants to emerge. When the plants are about 3 cm high thin them out to being about a finger-length apart.

Poppies are frost- tolerant.

 

Fertiliser

Poppies are very hardy so there is no need to add additional fertiliser to the potting mix. You might add some liquid fertiliser (eg seaweed) into the water when the plants start flowering.

Pests and Diseases

Not a problem for growing poppies but just keep an eye out for slugs and snails when the seedlings first emerge.

Companions

The spring flowering of poppies will attract bees around your garden.

Harvesting

The individual plants will flower for 10-14 days. It is best to “dead head” the flowers after they die away. Save one of the flower heads and dry it so you can have free seeds next year.

NZ Gardener features poppies in its April 2015 magazine. And they have got free seeds too !!

If you are interested in learning more about the war time history of the poppy and the poem “In Flanders Fields”, have a look at this website:

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/flanders.htm

Here is how Eric Bogle – my favourite Australian/Scots musician- sounds singing about the poppies and carnage In Flanders Fields.

https://soundcloud.com/undercovermusic/in-flanders-fields

Here’s where to find the free seeds.

http://nzgardener.co.nz/how-to-sow-poppies/

What are you waiting for? Now is a great time to plant poppies in a GreenSmart pot. How about getting one as a Mother’s Day Gift?

Happy gardening – it’s good to grow,
Bill.