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Home & garden.

10 Jan 2022

How to grow poppies

Create a wonderful drift of colour in your garden with easy-to-grow poppies. Discover our best poppy varieties and tips for how to grow them

Ceri Thomas

In this article

Key facts
How to grow poppies: month by month
Best poppy varieties
How we test poppies
Caring for your plants
Common growing problems

Full of colour and busy with bees, annual poppies can be a vibrant addition to your border. They’re simple to grow and provide a succession of blooms that produce a beautiful display. Breeding has meant that you don’t have to settle for blocks of colour as some poppies are now delicately speckled or picotee. Although each bloom may be fleeting, a succession of them make these plants well worth growing.

Which? Gardening magazine grew a range of popular varieties to see which would give us the best display.

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Key facts

PLANT TYPE Hardy annual

POSITION Full sun

SOIL Well-drained

How to grow poppies: month by month

January	February	March	April	May	June
		Sow	Sow
July	August	September	October	November	December
		Sow

Best poppy varieties

Which? members can log in to see the full results and which are our Best Buy varieties. If you're not a member, join now to get instant access.

Best Buy poppies
What it looks like	Variety name	Height x spread
		65 x 25cm
	You certainly won’t miss the flowers of this variety. The bright-red petals with white middles stand out from the paler varieties, creating a splash of scarlet in the border. The bees loved to rummage around the centres, collecting pollen from the golden stamens. The first flowers opened by the middle of June and then, despite the exceptionally hot weather, kept flowering until the first week of August.
What it looks like	Variety name	Height x spread
		70 x 30cm
	If you love the tissue-petal flowers of poppies, this is a great mix to choose. In shades of red, pink and pearl white, the mix had picotee, speckled, single and double blooms that showcased the delicate, romantic nature of the flowers. The gentle succession of blooms kept coming during the heat of the summer, and the display lasted for five weeks. Bees loved the bright yellow flower centres.
What it looks like	Variety name	Height x spread

How we test poppies

In spring, we planted 12 single varieties of opium poppies, and 11 varieties and mixes of field poppies, into a prepared bed at the Which? Gardening magazine trial site at Capel Manor, north London. As poppies look best in drifts, we planted in a series of circles with gaps between each variety or mix. Once the seedlings appeared, we thinned them out as necessary. We kept the young plants well watered through the summer and looked at whether they came true to the description, compared how long they flowered for and how attractive they were.

Caring for your plants

Sowing direct in the ground

Direct sow in autumn or in spring. Prepare a weed-free, moist seed bed with loose soil, and sprinkle the seeds over to create a drift of plants. Keep the bed moist but not wet. Thin the seedlings to around 20cm between each plant.

Sowing in module trays

Although poppies don’t particularly enjoy being disturbed, you can grow them in module trays and transplant them. Sow them thinly in module trays in the autumn or spring and transplant them when they have four true leaves. Keep them well watered until they're established.

Watering

Keep watered in exceptionally dry spells.

Deadheading

If you don’t want poppies to spread, remove the seedheads before they ripen and open.

Common growing problems

Aphids

Aphids can be a problem, so either squash any you find or treat with an insecticide such as Best Buy Westland Resolva Bug Killer if they look like they’re getting out of hand.

Read more about aphids