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.