Opium Poppies ...... Advice Please!

[Ann]

This year we have had the most amazing display of huge poppies in our front garden, different shades of pink, red, and lilac, some frilly, some double with massive heads. They have really been a picture. I didn't set them although I had a few which came up by themselves last year so assumed they had self-set as wild flowers. We had the front garden completely dug over last Autumn and I know that is what starts germination of the wild flanders red poppies you can see growing as a whole farmers field after it has been ploughed after many years lying dormant.

I had no idea ours were "opium" poppies! Used as drugs?? They have mostly finished flowering now and today I was pulling up the whole plants to throw them away but cutting the beautiful seedheads off to use for flower arranging - you can buy these dried seedheads from florists but cost quite a lot of money! To my horror someone walking by casually remarked "I see you are harvesting your OPIUM poppies - is it legal to grow them here in the UK - in Australia where I am from, you would be arrested!" Gosh, I had no idea if he was joking - I felt quite scared then, so wondered if that is the case. We live next door to a retired policeman and he surely would have said something to us! .......... What a shame they are associated in this bad light, they were absolutely fantastic and lots of elderly people on our estate have been saying for several weeks what a picture they are in our garden, so pretty.

[rowanwitch]

just enjoy them when the seed heads are dry shake them around the garden onto lightly raked soil