Wild red poppies in garden

[chessie]

We had quite a few of the wild red poppies growing in our garden this summer - large numbers by side of rockery and ruined old stone building - far more plentiful last summer than in previous years.

I've been out recently in the garden 'tidying up' and pulling out all the old weeds, the 'dead stuff'.

Started pulling up all the long leggy stalks of what I believe are left of the wild poppies and had a thought - should I really be pulling them out - will they flower again next year ?

Or do they only grow from seeds sown naturally during this summer ?

These are the true, red, wild poppies - not domesticated.

Don't want to do any harm !! 

Chessie

[NickP]

It's my experience that the wild poppies self-seed and like ground that is disturbed. I clear/tidy our flower beds and the poppies still return every year.

[woolybanana]

Google says they are annuals, biennials and short lived perennials so you can be fairly sure they will keep coming. Nickodemus is right about self seeding.

[Patf]

Poppies have very deep roots so are difficult to remove if you decide you don't like them.

Another reason why they're survivors in the plant world.

[Loiseau]

They definitely like disturbed earth; that’s why they were so prevalent on the battlefields. And also why you see them in cornfields.

[chessie]

Thanks everyone.

Phew - thought I might have destroyed them.

So they grow from seed every year, and doesn't matter, once they've flowered, that's it.

Well that's good news;  bad news - means I've not finished diying up all the dead stuff !!

Thank you - Chessie

[ericd]

Chessie. Just wait until the centre of the flower becomes a pod. The petals will fall off, the green pod turn dark brown and one day will open up to release hundreds of tiny seeds. As you want to keep them coming back, only remove stalks to ground level when pods are empty.

[Patf]

I've got a recipe somewhere for poppy seed biscuits, though I've never made them.