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.

[Tilly2]

Ann, perhaps they were just joking.

[Ann]

That's what I am hoping Tilly ..........

[Graham-W]

From Wiki: Opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, is the species of plant from which opium and poppy seeds are derived.
Opium poppy cultivation in the United Kingdom does not require a license, but extracting opium for medicinal products does.
PS, Don't try to grow them in the United Arab Emirates.

[boxtops]

Yes, it's perfectly legal - my elderly mother had dozens of them. It's not the growing them which is the problem, you just mustn't process them - drying them for flower decorations is absolutely fine. They wouldn't sell the seeds if it weren't legal. http://www.nickys-nursery.co.uk/garden-shop/seeds/cut-flower/papaver.-poppy-cherry-glow-200-seeds?gclid=COKqgLrpvrgCFfLHtAodWwUAyA

[tonyav]

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=opium+poppies+pictures&sa=X&hl=en-GB&rlz=1T4GGNI_en-GBGB494GB494&tbm=isch&;tbo=u&source=univ&ei=VefqUfWaLKiW0AXL2oCIDg&;ved=0CC0QsAQ&biw=1600&bih=763


Do they look anything like these, Ann ?.

[Ann]

Wonder how I got them? Do birds eat them and cause them to grow from their droppings?

[askyourgran]

They are lovely I like poppies, but Mrask told me to dig ours out. Don't know whether he was afraid we'd get a load of Afghan poppy farmers on our doorstep! I think it would take a lot of seeds to make opium and I don't think it is illegal to grow them ....yet.

[boxtops]

Yes, and seeds spread on the wind when the seedheads burst - any poppy loves fresh soil. Mum's were about four feet tall, the big lilac coloured flowers.

[Robinia]

They're only small and light and get carried on the wind. I can see some along my road that have obviously spread from one particular garden.

[Graham-W]

Like foxgloves, the seeds can be carried a long way by the wind. They can also lay dormant for upto 7 years before deciding to grow.

[Ann]

Not really boxy ..........
Yes Tony, those are the ones, all diiferent kinds and colours. I will try and post a pic later when I've downloaded it from camera.

[Robinia]

I don't think our poppies have much opium content, they need to be grown in hot conditions.

[woofgang]

opium isn't made from the seeds but from the sap. Yes they are quite legal to grow and safe.
http://www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/papaver-somniferum-laurens-grape/classid.2000018825/

[Ann]

//I don't think it is illegal to grow them ....yet. //
Phew that's a relief AYG, as I would like them again next year, no watering required and I didn't even stake them. Loads of colour, very photogenic - took lots of pics!

[Maydup]

We have them and harvest the seeds, but they don't grow half as well as the do when they seed themselves. Don't worry about the casual remark, whether or not it was a joke, its nonesense. Our local library has a community garden and they grow and harvest them too!

[SlackAlice]

I get them every year, great display. Seeds are very light and wind dispersed.
Your ok in the UK to grow them except for the purpose of harvesting the opium.

[boxtops]

Blimey, scroll down to "Modern Usage" - I didn't realise you could get high from eating two poppy seeded rolls! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium

[Ann]

Good grief Boxy! So what kind of poppies do the seeds come from which you get on poppy seeded plait loaves or rolls in supermarkets or just for baking? Been eating them for years - no wonder I have funny turns LOL ;)

[Prudie]

Are you sure they aren't Oriental Poppies (Papaver Orientale)? They are the really big, showy hairy ones.

[Ann]

No Prudie I grow those too, they are slighly bigger and mine are red, I also have one called "Patty's Plum" so I know they are different.