PlantFiles: California Poppy
Eschscholzia californica

I originally grew these in containers in 2007, around my agave truncata and in my flowerpot rack display. Much to my amazement they have spread to all my flowerbeds , and continue in the original containers I planted them in . They look so beautiful with the bluebonnets and the Texas paintbrush in the open field they have now colonized next to my home . The state lower of California and the state flower of Texas look amazing blooming together. I will post pics as soon as they bloom .

I PLANTED THESE BEAUTIES IN POTS , WHICH I SET IN AND AROUND THE GARDEN. THE FOLLOWING SPRING , THEY SPROUTED ALL AROUND WHERE THE POTS WERE , I LIVE IN ONTARIO , CANADA , SO THEY DO JUST FINE IN THIS COLDER REGION. I NOW COLLECT THE SEEDS AND PLANT WHERE I CHOOSE AND ENJOY THEIR STEADY SPRING / SUMMER COLOUR = )

I am a wildflower lover and this is my overall favorite. It may not be the best at attracting bees, butterflies etc., but it makes up for it with needing no maintainence and growing in places few other plants will grow, giving those parts of my land a colorful show from frost to frost.

California Poppy is a gorgeous plant and can be seen everywhere in Northern California in the Spring. I've attempted to plant these seeds numerous times in order to enjoy the show in my own yard. My experience has been, however, that they never grow where I seed them. They do appear in every crack and crevice and planting bed other than the one I wanted them in! Can't explain, but have had better luck buying the plants. Seems to be the only way I can make them stick to a preferred area!

California poppies are a self seeding annual in Calgary, Canada.
They come in a wide range of colours from white to purple. However, it is the original orange California poppy which is most likely to reseed itself.

These are perennial and nearly indestructible in Seattle, and reseeds vigorously as well. Fortunately the seedlings are easy to pull. I only let it grow in out of the way places because, while spectacular in bloom, it gets mildewy and ratty looking in late summer.

Grew these from seed in raised desert bed here in Western Arkansas, grew like crazy, I let them reseed a few times, and the seedlings and the bigger ones I didn't pull out lived all through winter here, we had 15-20 degrees a few nights, snow storms and a whole lot of rain, and everytime it warms up they just keep putting out more leaves.

I would never think 'eschscholzia' had anything to do with the poppy of my childhood...I have had these California lovelies in my yard all my life. My mom used to hold one up under my chin and say that if my chin glowed yellow, then I certainly liked butter! I would collect the seed pods every year, even if that really didn't need to be done since the plants always resowed themselves. The blossoms are so silky and delicate...a wild thing to treasure forever.

My first year growing these. I sowed outdoors very early spring, and now they are putting on such a show! They're so eye-catching. Hope it lasts.

I have some 1-4" tall seedlings of CA poppy going right now. They're doing really well, unlike some other species of poppies I've tried to grow here. As far as being poisonous/narcotic... I really don't think it's either. It is said to have some ralaxing/calming properties and some people do indeed ingest it for these properties, but I have never heard of anybody getting poisoned. I, however, have never consumed CA poppy.

These grow wild all over the Califonia hills. In early spring it is a great sight. They are so easy, asking for nothing

A great dryland plant. Starts blooming just as it begins to warm and early spring flowers are starting to fade. Here in So. Oregon they grow like a weed, getting started just after the fall rains hit and usually grow all winter, unless we have an unusually cold year, then seedlings spring up when it warms up. I pull them from where I don't want them and let the rest go.

It is said that the plant contains substances that have slight narcotic, spasmolytic and analgetic effects... usually it can cause symptoms like nausea and vomit..

Not winter hardy in my area but I grow from seed sown in mid May. The poppies grow quickly and will take over the area in which their sown and give me continuous bloom from mid summer to frost. Delightful!

These are borderline winter-hardy in my Zone 7 dryland garden. Both old plants and seedlings appear every year. I weed them out of wherever I don't want them, and that's all the care they get. I haven't had any luck with the "fancy" (purple, pink, white) varieties from seed yet--I'll see how things go this year.

My plants at home bloom with orange flowers in the spring. In early summer, then they have smaller, yellow flowers.

The wild CA poppies of the Antelope Valley are the classic, large orange flowers. The wild CA poppies of the Santa Monica Mountains are smaller and yellowish. (These are Eschscholzia californica, not another species.)

I read that miners would look for stands of yellow CA poppies as they were indicators of mineral-rich soil. I don't know if that is true, as I get both colors from the same plant, depending on the time of year.

Even in zone 4b, these self-sow freely and come up each year. But I have to live with where they want to come up, because I can confirm that they do not like transplanting. The extras are easy to pull out however... in fact, you don't even have to worry about pulling the root since they are an annual. They add splashes of color in the rock garden when not much else is blooming.

The yellow ones are easy but seldom resow as normally advertised. The other colors are not as easy to grow. I cast the seed directly on the ground.

Its a pretty plant and lives like a weed in out very poor hardpan soil....only thing is...IT LIVES LIKE A WEED and gets into everything...i am constantly weeding out poppies!

This is the state flower for California, where it self sows readily in even dry, non-fertile soil. It easily covers the hills of the Napa Valley, in abundance.

It is a sunlover and it does not tolerate shade, and it absolutely does not like being transplanted.

I have not had good luck getting these to grow in my zone (7), in New Jersey.

An easy annual with golden-orange and silky petaled flowers. Plants grow about a foot tall and a foot wide with finely cut gray-green foliage. Very tolerant of poor dry soils and will self seed abundantly.