Iceland Poppies

One hundred white Champagne Bubbles Iceland Poppies

Iceland poppies are incredibly beautiful. I love their delicate, fluttery petals and their long stems which sometimes develop crazy twists and turns. Each flower is a precious treasure, all the more so because they are difficult to grow.

I'm growing iceland poppies for the first time this year. I've tried to grow them before, but they did not germinate very well, and once a few finally did germinate, they didn't seem to grow. This year I did better. In fact, I did an experiment and started seeds outside last fall AND started seeds inside this January.

I direct sowed iceland poppies mid September last fall. I was excited because they did indeed germinate and produce tiny seedlings much easier than my previous attempt starting seeds indoors. They survived the winter, but the plants were still very tiny in the spring. If fact, they were not any bigger than the seedlings I started inside in January. I must admit, they probably should have been weeded a bit more, but I could not get excited about weeding when it was freezing cold outside.

Poppies in a 128 cell tray. Some germination is better than no germination.

I also started seeds inside on January 22nd. Iceland poppy seed is incredibly tiny, like dust. I used a damp toothpick to pick up a few seeds for each of the 128 cells in my 10" x 20" seed starting tray. Each of the cells are about 1 inch square and 1.5 inches deep. Some seeds did eventually germinate, but probably only 25% of them sprouted.

They stayed tiny for a long time and took forever to grow. On March 23, I bumped them up

Poppies in a 72 cell tray at the beginning of April soon to be transplanted into the garden

to a 72 cell tray where each cell is about 1.5 inches square and 2.25 inches deep. By early April, I moved them outside to harden off, and on April 12th, I transplanted them outside. They were still pretty tiny. In fact, they were still tiny on May 16th when I saw the first buds.

My first poppy bloomed on May 20th.

Surprisingly, the overwintered poppies that I direct sowed, and the poppies I started inside in January both had the first bloom on the same day. The overwintered poppies only bloomed for three weeks. The spring planted poppies are still blooming (five weeks so far). In the future, I'll be starting all my poppies inside in seed trays.

Harvesting poppies is a pain. Literally, back pain. You have to bend waaaaay down and move the foliage and tiny new buds out of the way so you can see the stem to cut it. Every day I harvest every flower that is blooming and every bud that is in "cracked bud" stage when they first begin to show color, but before the bud is open. Immediately after cutting, you have to cauterize each stem so that the milky latex sap doesn't leak out and allows the flower to drink water. This step is crucial to give poppies a decent vase life. it's a painstaking process. A labor of love.

Poppies bloom for four to six weeks, so their season is almost over. They are truly a beautiful, magical flower, so enjoy them while you can.