Mahmood’s Garden
Gardening trials, tribulations and rewards in the Arabian desert
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The poppies didn’t work
Author: Mahmood19 Oct
I planted three kinds of poppies in seed trays on Sept 21st and none of them came up. Unfortunately I have had to give up on them; the ones I tried were:
I think the reason they failed is probably due to (1) over watering, and (2) overzealous with the plant food! Even others didn’t fair very well actually except for the Calendulas and Antirrhinums of the same batch linked above.
7 Responses for "The poppies didn’t work"
Dear Mahmood,
You may need to just wait for the seedings to have the right weather conditions (temperature, humidity and light) to come back to life. keep the soil moist, they may just need some cold weather in Jan or Feb.
Good luck
Anwar
You could be right… one thing that I am not good at, and a thing that gardening is slowly teaching me, is patience!
Have you tried California Poppies (Eschscholtzia californica)? They can be weedy (although easy to spot and pull), but they can survive in sand, and will re-seed themselves every year. They really don’t need much preparation to get them to germinate as they wait until the first rains (being adapted to a dry climate, a few related species even grow in our deserts).
I planted them last year and a few of straggly plants came through but never flowered as promised on the seed packet! I had them under a Cassia though, so not much sun reached them, that could have been the reason.
Mahmood: Eschscholtzia is a full sun plant, In shade they will get scraggly and won’t flower well if at all. I’ve never seen them growing under trees here, always out in open meadows or disturbed areas.
Ah, that would explain it!
Indeed
In fact, the only place on our property that they never colonize is the north side of the house, which is almost in full shade all day long. There, Oxalis pes-caprae abounds.
I’ve posted images of the poppies out in Antelope Valley, which is sagebrush desert, and the flowers there go crazy with blooms.
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