I picked up a pack of annual Giant Peony Poppy seeds today. Never grown them before. Wondering if I should winter sow or just start outside in May.

Any help appreciated.

Because their purchased I could not say however I sowed some Peony poppy today , usually they will winter sow nicely , just press in lightly and make sure their is plenty of light .
Most will be what the weather does , it is almost to warm here
So I am only sowing a few at a time ,,

Thank you!

Also, as I remember, they have taproots so do best if transplanted to the ground asap. The cold generally doesn't bother them.

Karen

I agree with Karen--they don't like to be moved once established.

For the last 20 years, I have followed a tradition that I iniciated:

On New Year's Eve, after midnight, and of course after many celebratory beverages, I take my seeds from the refrigerator, and walk out in the snow, and cast the tiny seeds on the snow on a previously marked area.

The snow keeps the seeds from following blowing away with the wind.

This winter we did not have snow on New Year's Eve, however, I scattered some poppy seeds in February when we finally had some deep snow.

Many fellow gardeners are following my tradition.

Hi, Jennifer,
What did you end up doing with your poppy's?

I had been debating the same thing, ds vs. ws. I had tried to direct sow before and it didn't work for me, so I ws'd and they sprouted fairly quickly. I understand the taproot dilemma, and so once they got 2 sets of leaves, I planted them out yesterday. I hope that will work. The roots were long, but the plants are still basically seedlings, so hopefully a)nothing eats them and b)they can establish themselves in the garden. When I saw how quickly these germinated, I immediately started another jug of them, sorta as backup. I'm still going to try direct sowing another year as it may have been my seeds, or my timing.

Well, I did winter sow some. They were one of the first things to germinate. But I'm kind of in a pickle now. They are getting leggy and need to be planted out (my opinion). BUT we are supposed to have very very cold nights, several below freezing, for the next 15 nights. So I'm not going to plant anything out!! I'm just going to leave them, cover the container every night and hope for the best. I'll get them planted out as soon as I can. But I still have plenty more seeds. So I can direct sow some too.

Jennifer, I think they'd be fine if you transplant now. Poppies can take freezes with no problem. When I WSowed them, I had the same experience. I think I transplanted them in March in Ohio. (on the advice of the old timer WSers @ the old GardenWeb, like Trudi). They came thru like champs.

OTOH, if you transplant later, after that taproot is settled into the jug, they might not like the move. I'd transplant asap.

Karen

Ok, thanks Karen! I'll get them out today. I appreciate the advice!

Geez, now I hope it works OK! :-)

Karen

Thanks guys! I hadn't thought about freeze issues. We too are going to have a night or two this week below freezing, and I hadn't given it any thought. I was more concentrated on the whole taproot/transplanting issue and just wanted to get them re-established asap. I guess I assumed what Karen is saying since they can be direct sown in winter.

Jennifer-Are your other poppy seeds refrigerated? I guess I was wondering if you can still direct sow if they haven't had a cold period.

Does anyone know if I should be worried about rabbits or groundhogs eating them?

I sorta planted "chunks" of seedlings. I was going to wait a bit to pinch out any as I'm assuming 6 seedlings in a half inch area is too many. I could have separate them out individually when planting but I assumed the less fussing with them, the better. Thoughts?

I do not have my other seeds in the fridge.

When it comes to stuff like this I'm of the "don't overthink it!" school of thought. I way way overthink too many other things in life. I need this to be relaxing.

Had a garden business for 50 yrs (selling from my gardens) Ive planted
poppy seeds spring or fall. Sometimes they surprise me the next year
if they fail to appear. I moved and wasn't able to collect my seeds from
the variety I had and sure would love to find someone who is willing
to share..or trade.
Margy in Ct.

motgrnd6

Sorry, no help with the seeds. I have only grown poppies here a couple of times and they never came back very well.

My seedlings look fine even thought it was snowy yesterday and below freezing overnight

Motgrnd6.. same here just moved.. and nothing to share.. sorry

Well with the record cold nights we are having most of the planted out seedlings are toast. I'm afraid to even look at my winstersown containers.

But totally not worried about the annual poppies. I'll sow more directly in May. According to the packet it should be just fine

What temps did you have? How low can they annual poppy's tolerate? I covered my winter sow jugs, so I'd imagine those are fine, but I didn't have a chance to look at the planted poppies.

I wish I would have remembered to cover my wintersown containers last night cause some of them had seedlings in them. In the middle of the night (early early morning) outside temp was 25 degrees. We are due for one more of those really cold nights before Sunday. I will be so happy when Sunday gets here. Looks like it might start to gradually warm up.