A fully hardy group of well-loved annuals, perennials and biennials, grown for their distinctive cup-shaped blooms. There are poppies to suit most areas of the garden, from the herbaceous border to the rockery. Most species are easily grown from seed.

Oriental poppies have tiny seeds. To make sowing easier, try sprinkling your seed on a sheet of white paper and use a damp finger to pick up a few at a time. Once seeded, cover the pots with plastic to retain moisture and place them in a sunny window. Your seedlings should germinate in 7 to 14 days.

Cut back and deadhead Oriental poppies after flowering. Cutting them right back to ground level will stimulate growth of fresh new foliage, and perhaps even some new blooms. Mulching and feeding will help to support this new growth.

Papaver rhoeas, the field poppy, is a hardy annual, growing up to 40cm (16in) high and flowering from June into September. Papaver somniferum, the opium poppy, is also a hardy annual, growing to 60cm (2ft) high and flowering throughout summer.. . . . .364011236363!]0000000000000009783314147063!]