California Poppies

Read in Afrikaans

Get your hands on some seed packets of the California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) and sow them with your kids! If you show the picture of them to a kid, chances are great that the answer would be a positive ‘yes!’. In two ticks you will have happy and excited company in the garden to help you to sow the seed. The golden, cup-shaped flowers of California poppies are sure to add sunshine yellow and warmth, even on the coldest winter’s day!

What you need to know about California poppies:

• Eschscholzia californica seed can be sown year-round. If you do so quickly before winter comes, you will have masses of flowers in spring and summer.
• The California poppy loves full sun and poor soil of the sandy and rocky kind, with very good drainage.
• The seed must be sown in situ no more than 2mm deep in loosened soil. These plants have deep taproots and do not tolerate transplanting. They need no pampering once germinated, except water to keep them going.
• Spacing between seeds should be 20 x 20cm. They will germinate between 7 – 14 days and flower in 90 – 100 days.
• They tend to go dormant in adverse growing conditions – like too much heat, cold or water.
• Although California poppies are classified as short-lived perennials, they are mostly treated as annuals.
• They have a self-seeding habit, so they tend to stay with you.

What the kids will learn:

• They are veld flowers native to the USA and Mexico, and are the state flower of California.
• Flower buds are enclosed in a pointed, cap-like hat (calyx) made of two fused sepals. This falls away to expose a beautiful furled flower sitting on a round pink platform.
• The flowers sweetly close up their petals to go to sleep when the sun sets or the weather is overcast. They happily open up once again the next day, splashing the earth in orange.
• These flowers produce long seed pods which ripen from green to brown. They emit a soft popping sound when they release their small black seeds.
• The ferny blue-green foliage has lovely pink tips before unfolding into mature leaves.
• It is safe to touch the silky texture of the petals.
• If you leave a patch of California poppies in peace on a sunny day, the bees and butterflies will pop in for a visit.

California poppy varieties

Many garden varieties of this willing plant have been developed, including double and semi-double flowers as well as colours other than just bright orange. ‘Mission Bells’ has double flowers in a mix of scarlet red, gold, pink and white.