Annual Poppies

• Annual poppies re-seed easily.poppies image by Irina Rotmanova from Fotolia.com
  
  California poppies (Papaver eschscholtzia) and Shirley poppies (P. rhoes) are among the showy annual poppies. Sow annual poppies in fall. Choose a sunny, well-drained area, scatter the seed and rake it lightly into the soil. Keep the seeds moist and they'll sprout within a week. In the spring, prepare yourself for a bright show of reds, oranges and golds from June until October. Many cultivars are double-flowered.
  
  

Perennial Poppies

• Breeders developed double oriental poppy forms.white oriental poppy image by Alison Bowden from Fotolia.com
  
  Perennial poppies have a wider variety of forms and functions. Oriental poppies (P. orientale) bloom for a short time and die back in summer, but the large flowers are stunning and produce shades of pink, red and orange. Icelandic poppies (P. nudicaule) are rather short-lived as perennials, but re-seed easily and may bloom the first year if sown in early spring. Papaver alpinum is a short, low-growing species useful for poor soils or as garden edging.
  
  

Naturalizing Poppies

• California poppies often naturalize along highways.california poppy image by Igor Zhorov from Fotolia.com
  
  Annual poppies will easily self-sow and often naturalize throughout the garden. Most gardeners only plant annual poppies once for color year after year, and some gardeners find poppies invading every bed in the landscape. Perennial poppies re-seed as well, but deadheading encourages repeat bloom.