How to Care for California Poppies

California poppies, or Eschscholzia californica, are bright orange annuals that grow wild in California’s deserts. Entire hillsides turn gold as poppies blanket them in the spring. They are easy to care for, even in northern gardens. Amass them in borders or beds for a bold impact, or scatter them in a wildflower garden to bring a spot of bright color. California poppies now come in other colors, like white, pink, red and yellow.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

things you’ll need:

• California poppy seeds
• Water
• Soil
• Sand
• Rake

1. Locate a sunny garden bed for your poppies. California poppies need well-drained, sandy soil and six to eight hours of full sun per day to thrive. The poppies’ blooms will close if shaded too much.
2. Mix the seeds with a little sand, using a ratio of four parts sand to one part seed, to help in their dispersal.
3. Sow seeds directly in the soil as soon as it warms to 60 degrees in spring. Scatter them over the soil by hand. One packet of 200 seeds will cover up to a 100-square-foot area. Run a rake over the seeds and lightly cover them with soil. California poppies do not tolerate transplanting.
4. Water the seeds well at planting, and keep them moist until the first leaves appear. After that, water sparingly, no more than once a week in the absence of rain. California poppies are drought-tolerant desert plants and should not be over-watered or over-fertilized.
5. Pinch off spent flowers to encourage the plant to put out more blooms. Plants normally bloom for six to eight weeks in the spring. Pinching the blooms can extend their blooming period by a couple of weeks.
6. Let the flowers go to seed if you want to save the seeds for replanting or allow the plant to self-sow. This will mean that the plants will stop flowering sooner. Save seeds by pinching off the seed head and storing in a dry place until next spring.
7. Guard against powdery mildew by not crowding your poppy plants and giving them full sun. A wet, crowded or shady environment will encourage the growth of this garden disease. Space your poppy plants 6 to 12 inches apart for good air circulation.

Tips & Warnings

• California poppies will self-sow in Zones 5 to 10. Northern gardeners must gather and save seeds if they want poppies the next year.

• California poppies are beautiful when paired with blue or purple flowers as they occur in the wild with lupine and larkspur.

• California poppies do not make good cut flowers. They will lose their petals almost as soon as you cut them.