Planted my neighbor’s garden!

[Fru-Gal]

I had a vision of a field of poppies and my neighbor has a huge 70-foot-long strip of bare ground. I’ve managed to plant every inch of my property so I asked them if I could plant theirs. They said yes, gave me $60 for some fencing and seeds and I turned all the soil (it was compacted) and planted poppy seeds and daffodils and a few transplants from my garden. Everything is drought-tolerant.

[former player]

Nice.

I hope you are not also stuck with maintenance, or if you are that it will be easy.

[Dicey]

Wow! I hope there will be photos come Spring. Here's hoping all this rain we're having doesn't wash all your seeds away.

[Fru-Gal]

I have yet to really succeed with poppies like some of my neighbors do but it’s an issue of timing. If I get them in too early, they often get outcompeted. Too late, they miss the spring rain. The good news is they germinated and did not all wash away! They’re mixed in with succulents too which are helping hold the ground.

[lhamo]

Regular poppies or california poppies?  If the latter I can confirm that they are extremely easy to grow and will spread on their own.  I have them all over my yard and containers after I planted my first batch our first summer here.  I love them so I don't mind.  I haven't had great luck with regular poppies but I have some free seeds I'm going to try starting in old water jugs (winter sowing).

[iris lily]

I have a lifelong love and longing for poppies, mostly thwarted. The big showy Oriental perennial poppies loathe and despise being transplanted, so I never had any luck with them after $$$ wasted. Even though they exist in abandoned farmsteads all over Iowa, but NO orange poppies for me! :(

I have tried some of the annual types, Icelandic and Shirley, and had mild success.

Lately I have been having better success with the old annual paeoniflorum in Zone 6. I get fresh seeds each year from a community garden plot. I was building up a nice little groups of self seeding ones when we moved, so I will be starting over. These are,
I believe, illegal to grow. But I do not care.

Two times in my life I saw the elusive blue Himalayan poppy, both times in Scotland. Once it was in the garden of our auntie who had a perfect cottage by the sea. That poppy is a stunner.

[SunnyDays]

My grandmother's yard was completely veggies and flowers.  Not a single blade of grass.  She came from "the old country," and planting grass was seen as a total waste of productive land.  I remember the poppies, the illegal kind that make opium, but strangely, I only remember them as pods with the little spiky things around the edges.  I'm sure I must have seen them in bloom, but I have no memory of that.  She also had lots of tiger lilies and every time I see them I think of her.  I have some of them too, but unfortunately the lily beetles have been at them the past few years and they aren't looking too good anymore.

[jeninco]

My grandmother's yard was completely veggies and flowers.  Not a single blade of grass.  She came from "the old country," and planting grass was seen as a total waste of productive land.  I remember the poppies, the illegal kind that make opium, but strangely, I only remember them as pods with the little spiky things around the edges.  I'm sure I must have seen them in bloom, but I have no memory of that.  She also had lots of tiger lilies and every time I see them I think of her.  I have some of them too, but unfortunately the lily beetles have been at them the past few years and they aren't looking too good anymore.

"Testicle plants"! We have big oriental poppies semi-wild in part of our back yard (they came with the house) and just before they bloom they totally look like ... well, you know!

[iris lily]

My grandmother's yard was completely veggies and flowers.  Not a single blade of grass.  She came from "the old country," and planting grass was seen as a total waste of productive land.  I remember the poppies, the illegal kind that make opium, but strangely, I only remember them as pods with the little spiky things around the edges.  I'm sure I must have seen them in bloom, but I have no memory of that.  She also had lots of tiger lilies and every time I see them I think of her.  I have some of them too, but unfortunately the lily beetles have been at them the past few years and they aren't looking too good anymore.

where do you live? The red lily beetle is now under control tho not eradicated on the East coast. It has not worked its way West yet, in significant numbers anyway.

A research team at University of Rhode Island identified a very effective biological control, parasitic wasps that feed on the red lily beetle. I heard their presentation at the last  North America Lily Society convention I attended and we all were VERY encouraged at their progress.

[SunnyDays]

My grandmother's yard was completely veggies and flowers.  Not a single blade of grass.  She came from "the old country," and planting grass was seen as a total waste of productive land.  I remember the poppies, the illegal kind that make opium, but strangely, I only remember them as pods with the little spiky things around the edges.  I'm sure I must have seen them in bloom, but I have no memory of that.  She also had lots of tiger lilies and every time I see them I think of her.  I have some of them too, but unfortunately the lily beetles have been at them the past few years and they aren't looking too good anymore.

where do you live? The red lily beetle is now under control tho not eradicated on the East coast. It has not worked its way West yet, in significant numbers anyway.

A research team at University of Rhode Island identified a very effective biological control, parasitic wasps that feed on the red lily beetle. I heard their presentation at the last  North America Lily Society convention I attended and we all were VERY encouraged at their progress.

South central Canada.  The beetles are definitely here, at least in my yard.  I've had no blooms for the past 2 years because they've eaten most of the leaves.  Before that, I had glorious blooms.

[iris lily]

My grandmother's yard was completely veggies and flowers.  Not a single blade of grass.  She came from "the old country," and planting grass was seen as a total waste of productive land.  I remember the poppies, the illegal kind that make opium, but strangely, I only remember them as pods with the little spiky things around the edges.  I'm sure I must have seen them in bloom, but I have no memory of that.  She also had lots of tiger lilies and every time I see them I think of her.  I have some of them too, but unfortunately the lily beetles have been at them the past few years and they aren't looking too good anymore.

where do you live? The red lily beetle is now under control tho not eradicated on the East coast. It has not worked its way West yet, in significant numbers anyway.

A research team at University of Rhode Island identified a very effective biological control, parasitic wasps that feed on the red lily beetle. I heard their presentation at the last  North America Lily Society convention I attended and we all were VERY encouraged at their progress.

South central Canada.  The beetles are definitely here, at least in my yard.  I've had no blooms for the past 2 years because they've eaten most of the leaves.  Before that, I had glorious blooms.

Oh that’s too bad! I’ve heard that the Red beetles are still working in Canada, but I think the wasps are on their way to you. Many Canadian lily growers and some important hybridizers are part of our North America Lily Society and we see them each year at the convention.

[Fru-Gal]

Learning a lot from this thread! I am planting California poppies. Because the neighbors patch of ground has been fallow for two years I thought it would be a good spot for poppies because so much of my yard is planted with stuff that competes so I have a few here and there but it’s a struggle. Even though I know they are good self-sowers, there’s always something ripping them out, whether it’s my chickens, my dogs or another aggressive plant lol.

[Chris Pascale]

This is really cool. Living in a planned community now, a good portion of our plants are indoors, which includes an 8' tree in my entryway that is reaching toward the skylight.

Not sure if this shows in the photos (seeing now my finger is in the shot!) but the bottom leaves are dying off, so we've ordered a grow light to attach to the stairs.

[Fru-Gal]

Beautiful, that tree looks very happy!