About a decade or so ago I was flying into the San Francisco area on business and my Sister (and current business partner) took the opportunity to come spend some time with me since I didn’t get to travel that often. She flew in from Los Angeles and we rented a car to go sight-seeing. While she was driving I was able to survey the landscape and I couldn’t get over the beautiful orange flowers that just blanketed the hillsides and seemed to be everywhere. Of course, I had to find out what they were and I came to discover that they were called California Poppies.
In fact, these flowers are not true poppies but the shape of their flower is poppy like and while orange and yellow are the colors I know best there are red, pink and even possibly white varieties of this flower as well. I found out that this flower is actually the state flower of California and fortunately for me and the rest of the country it can be grown in garden zones 5 through 10. While it is considered an annual flower it self-seeds pretty easily and in zones 8 through 10 it actually can be treated as a perennial flower.
These flowers are very drought tolerant and prefer dry and even sandy like soil conditions. They will not grow in wet soil and don’t fertilize these plants! If the soil is too rich you’ll get a lot of foliage and not too much in the way of flowers. These plants are sun lovers and the flowers actually close on cloudy days or when the sun goes down. I grow them in the driest and sunniest spot in my garden which is a southern exposure. While they are sun loving they don’t care for the heat of summer and they generally stop flowering by the time July rolls around in my area. From April to June however they put on quite a show!
Their foliage is fern-like and while they grow only 10 to 12 inches tall I do provide them some support as a hard rain can beat them down to the ground. This is more for aesthetics as when the sun comes out again so will their flowers. I’ve yet to see them bothered by insects or diseases and they just keep coming back year after year. If you want to plant these flowers in your yard the best bet is to start them from seed that is planted outdoors in early spring or in zones 7 through 10 you can plant them in the fall as well. These plants have a tap root and don’t transplant well. Trust me; I’ve tried it! When I plant them I just take the seed and scatter it as the seed requires light to germinate. You should keep the seed moist until it germinates which is usually around 2 weeks or so after planting.
California Poppies look great in rock gardens, flower borders and even in pots and containers. It can act almost like a ground cover which is what it really is like in California. The best part is that you don’t even need to live in California to grow it! Why not try it in your garden this year?
