Corn poppy

The common poppy is an annual and dies after the seeds ripen. You do not need to overwinter any plant. Let some seed capsules ripen and burst open on the stem, and it will self-seed; the seeds are frost-tolerant and germinate by themselves in spring. If you want to secure seed, cut off ripe capsules, let them finish drying in an airy place and store the seeds cool and dry.

You propagate the common poppy exclusively by sowing. As an annual, it forms no permanent rootstocks, runners or bulbils. Sow the fine seeds directly where they are to grow, because it forms a sensitive taproot and tolerates transplanting as a seedling poorly. Choose a sunny, rather lean, well-drained soil, away from large trees or shrubs. The best time is either early in spring from March to May or, alternatively, in late summer to autumn (August to October) for an autumn sowing, where the seeds use the natural winter cold as a germination trigger and come up especially strongly the following year. The common poppy is regarded mostly as a light-germinating seed: scatter the seed thinly on the prepared, finely crumbled bed, press it down only lightly with your hand or a board and cover it with no more than a wafer-thin layer. Because the seeds are very fine, it helps to mix them beforehand with some dry sand so they spread more evenly. Keep the area evenly moist until germination. After about two to three weeks the first seedlings appear, which you thin to about 20 to 25 cm if they stand thickly. If you leave the ripe seed capsules standing in autumn, the common poppy self-seeds the following year and returns every year without further effort, as long as the soil surface is not disturbed.