Hi, I’m Eric Allen from EdenBrothers.com, and today we will be growing California Poppy from seed.

California Poppy, Eschscholzia californica, is a small seed that packs a wonderful punch. In warm weather like its namesake California, it is a perennial, while in areas that have a winter season it acts like an annual. Most gardeners plant California poppy seed directly into the garden where they want them to bloom, so choose a good place with good soil, loosen the soil and just scatter the seed like this. Like most wildflowers, you don’t want to bury the seed, but you definitely want what is called seed-to-soil contact. Just tossing the seeds on the soil is not enough, you have to press them into the dirt. Again, don’t bury them, just press them into the soil like this. On larger plannings, this can be done with a lawn roller or even a piece of plywood and then watered until they sprout which should be in about a week.

Of course, the hybridizers have been at work on California Poppy, and at EdenBrothers.com we have many of the different colors that they’ve come up with. The natural wildflower, however, blooms mostly in orange and gold. It is an excellent edging plant or can be used wherever you need a patch of color. For height, California Poppy usually grows about a foot high. This picture shows the beginnings of the beautiful, silvery, fern-like foliage that each plant has. As for zones, California Poppy will grow in all of them. California Poppies are very easy to grow, and you can plant them in spring or fall after frost. As the name would imply, California Poppy definitely likes sun, so whatever you do, don’t plant them in deep shade. This picture shows California poppy in its natural habitat of California alongside Arroyo Lupin, which is an annual. EdenBrothers.com has both of these species and so much more by the packet or by the pound.

I’m Eric Allen from EdenBrothers.com, the seediest place on earth.