Growing poppies

Discussion in 'Flower Gardening' started by Melody Mc., Nov 21, 2022.

  1. Melody Mc.

    Melody Mc. Young Pine

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    Just curious Zigs, can you buy seeds in the UK?

    I ordered a package of Giganthemum poppy, from the Papaver somniferum/Opium poppy family. Just for fun. The seed pod apparently can be the size of a tennis ball. The plants are three to four feet tall, and have flowers four inches across. I'm only going to try growing a few plants, but I wonder if coppers would take a second look at field full of those big boys. :cool::flower:

    I hope I can get them to bloom - they are really gorgous. Apparently bees really love their blue pollen.

    https://www.westcoastseeds.com/products/giganthemum
     
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  2. Zigs

    Zigs Young Pine

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    Yep, seen em for sale in health food shops, seeds are the only part of the plant it's legal to possess :worried:
     
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  3. Daniel W

    Daniel W Young Pine

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    Here it's confusing. People have been arrested, but they were using them to make "herbal tea" and publishing that info. Since I like writing online about my garden, it seems prudent for me not to grow potentially illegal plants. I also made a decision not to grow castor beans due to concerns that neighborhood kids might trespass, find them, and eat them.

    Those are gorgeous poppies, but I can live with just oriental poppies, Shirley poppies, and others.

    Illegal to grow in the United States.

    https://homeguides.sfgate.com/legal-grow-poppy-flowers-77641.html

    also

    https://www.mofga.org/resources/flowers/breadseed-poppy/
     
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  4. Zigs

    Zigs Young Pine

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    Good call Daniel. I stopped a kid eating Laburnum seeds in Junior school, just wished him a happy 60th birthday after getting in touch with him again on LinkedIn
     
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  5. Daniel W

    Daniel W Young Pine

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    That's interesting. Laburnum seeds were used in a murder on an episode of Inspector Lewis.
     
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  6. Zigs

    Zigs Young Pine

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    You'd think they were peas if you weren't expecting them :eek:

    Some years back I was admin on a big UK gardening forum, very busy site. We had a member with a young family who posted a picture asking what was wrong with his carrot...

    Only the pic he posted was a Hemlock root :eek: We were on the verge of contacting the police/ambulance service as he didn't log back in for a while, we were worried that he'd cooked it up and killed the entire family.

    We sidestepped the pm system and sent him an email directly, fortunately he'd thrown it out as his wife said she'd tried a bit and it tasted funny. Lucky the taste didn't kill her :eek:
     
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