For the last few years I've been trying to get some perennial poppies established in the garden. The clump in the photo seems to be traveling- I'm finding plants 2 feet from the clump. I've tried growing them from seed several times using different methods (winter sowing, direct sowing, etc.), but have never had any luck. Perhaps I'm seeing self sown seedlings?

Have you seen them spread this way?

As they age yes , The better homes and gardens says to divide ( every 2 or 3 yrs ?) , I don't have much luck with the perennial poppies but I do have a few now .
You could be seeing self sown seedlings , if they press in on the surface ,
Personally , I would keep trying from seeds ,, But you might try colder stratifying a few , Might not be cold enough where you are , They are an all winter stratify here ,, Temperatures early will cause them to germinate and freeze to death as seedlings , Here they are winter sown now , 0 degrees , thru Feb ..

It gets plenty cold here but I think you may be on to something- they probably did germinate and then froze. We do get some wild temperature fluctuations in late winter through spring.

I believe I will divide the clump in the photo this summer when the foliage starts going dormant, I would like to spread them around the bed some so that bright patch of color is distributed throughout. I received that plant a few years ago as a pink one, and after 3 years waiting for it to bloom it turned out bright red. Oddly last year that one coral bloom showed up among them! Later I picked up a "red" one at Lowe's for my bed of fire colors- wouldn't you know, it turned out coral! I've moved it 3 times now, but a piece always shows back up. Once you've got 'em, you've got 'em forever! LOL

I have self sown seedlings from Orientals.
I also believe the original plant self sowes close to the main plant creating a clump. I might be wrong about this tho.
There are certain varieties of OP's that are hard to get rid of here. I have dug the dormant plants in August for transplanting and find new shoots come up in the same spot. These are caused by pieces of roots left behind. I think it was Coral Reef that expanded that way.

I think I removed the seed pods last summer, but I believe I left them the year before, so it could be self sown seedlings I'm seeing. The new plants seem too far from the clump to have occurred vegitatively - I haven't seen the roots travel horizontally like that before. I'm guessing that has to be how the coral bloom showed up too, which means I may see some fun color surprises!

Neal. I had Royal Wedding plantlets as far as 2 feet from the plant.
No lateral roots that I have ever seen here, just a big taproot type.
If you shred anything off the taproot it will act as a rootcutting, new plants appear late season or next season.
My OP's die off in August,then put up winter crownes. They look awful in spring but sure enough the plant looks great when temps go to70's.

I must be seeing seedlings. And I'm sure seeing the reproductive power of little root pieces too- all it takes it a tiny piece! The tap roots go so deep it's hard to ever get one completely out of a spot.

Don'cha luv it ?

Hi,
No, they don't really spread underground like that--no mechanism. Your new plants are most likely from seed and sometimes the seed can be dormant for years before conditions are favorable--could be self-sown from your clump a few feet away or even possibly from the seed you tried previously. Alternatively, if you somehow transported a piece of root over there...like rototilling poppies can really spread them around

Thanks, dd! I thought the roots always seemed positioned vertically whenever I've dug them. Now that you've mentioned delayed germination, that does sound like what has occurred.

Here to the left of center of the plant ,, A crown root running , farther to the left the barely visible green ,, more little poppies , from roots running ,
Papaver Orientalis , Red ,,

I have never had my poppies run. Rarely do I get any seedlings. Our soil is clay and things tend to rot, even though I have added a lot of compost through the years.

I have transplanted oriental poppies, and had them stop blooming for two years. I had an old plant (15 years) that I moved that did not bloom the following year, but the area where I dug it up, produced a new plant and that one bloomed a lot that year.

They grow naturally on raised , rocky , earth places , Like sort of the Mesa plans in Arizona , The only place the somniferums (Opium poppies) will grow in this country to any amount .
Clay (me too ) makes them difficult and fussy

I've had pretty good luck moving them just as they're going dormant in early summer. I have to be careful to mark them, otherwise they're in danger of my forgetting they're there. I usually see a few blooms the following season, then they take off and clump up.

I don't have much luck with them at all , For most , they seem easy , one of those plants that is not usually to satisfied with growing here .
I am like the sort that looks and says ,, Hey the plant grew this time .

I tried for years before succeeding with them, and not really sure what I did differently that allowed them to finally thrive. That always bugs me- glad to have them growing well, but would like to know what made them happy.

My Oriental Poppies spread underground and take over large areas of my flower gardens. They are very pretty, double orange flowers.

I also have difficulty with poppies but I do have one that has been here for the last few years. It lived in a container and rooted from the drain hole. I transplanted it. The transplant lived a year and disappeared but the spot where it rooted from the container bloomed. In the second year, it got bigger but I also got two colors so that shows it reseeded. I never had anything vigorous enough to run.