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lam702

Saving seeds

lam702
9 years ago

I would like to try and save some annual seed for next year. I have some peony poppies, so beautiful in shades of pink, plum and bicolor white/pink. If I save the seed, what can I expect from them as to color? Will they come somewhat true from seed? I'm not particular as to color, although I don't really want them to revert to the bright orange color. I am hoping for the pink/white/purple shades. Also, I have some annual scabiosa, in the lavender shade color. I love these because they are one of the few annuals that deer and woodchucks have not eaten and they are blooming heavily right now, very pretty. These are the taller type. Here again, I am not picky as to color, I just want to know if I can get seed that will grow into a similar plant next year.

Comments (10)

  • floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
    9 years ago

    If by 'peony poppies' you mean Papaver somniferum, Opium Poppy, they will never be orange - it's not in their genes. Red, pink, purple, mauve or white, single or double is the range.

  • lam702
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    That's great, thanks! Here I am buying seed every year when I could be collecting them. I am going to collect my larkspur too. I haven't planted it in years, but it keeps coming up every year. But since the woodchucks ate the cosmos I planted, I am thankful that the larkspur reseeded in the same area, so I at least have something tall flowering.

  • growlove
    9 years ago

    Until 2 weeks ago, I had beautiful impatiens. Now am noticing they are no longer setting buds, flowers are gone and leaves are dropping. Have many plants in various beds. Seems I am going to lose all the plants in certain areas, though others still look o.k. Is this a new disease for impatiens? Have grown them for years with great success in my shadier areas.

  • SouthCountryGuy Zone 4b-5 SE BC
    9 years ago

    Peony poppies are 'papaver somniferum var. paeoniiflorum' and can come in a wide array of colors. But floral_uk is right if they are straight 'papaver somniferum' her colors are correct and they will come true from seed. 'Papaver somniferum' is a single flower, however.

    Back to the OP's original question, it depends. If you know the cultivar you can look up whether they are an F1 hybrid which will not come true but you also don't know what your going to get. If not F1 they may come true.....find out and let us know :-)

    SCG

  • SouthCountryGuy Zone 4b-5 SE BC
    9 years ago

    Growlove, you would be better off starting a new thread for your question. I know you didn't mean too but it is called thread hijacking to go off topic. No worries this time.

    Start a new thread on it and include some pictures of your plants. Make sure they show the whole plant, the leaves falling off and anything else notable. Please make sure they are in focus and clear enough to see.

    I have never had luck with impatiens here. They are fine till our summer heat wave at which point they just sit, dormant till fall when the freeze.

    As well it is the end of Aug. lots of plants are spent now and unless deadheaded well looked after are on their last legs already.

    Good luck

    SCG

  • samhain10 - 5a
    9 years ago

    Apologies first for loading so many pics, but I am a lover of poppies myself - all varieties. Just wanted to show hpny some of the variation I'm getting with my saved seed from papaver somniferums, and a question to you all - is the semi-double one technically a peony-flowered p. somni? When I was given the seed some years ago, no name was given to them other than poppy. The blue bread poppy in my pic, though, I did purchase from seed and I believe it has crossed with others to give the lovely pink single. The last pic is an uncertainty as to its origin. It may have come in a free mix of annual wildflowers received as a bonus when ordering veggie seeds. Or it might be another cross? I just know when I saw it, I was floored at how drop-dead gorgeous it was!

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  • steelskies
    9 years ago

    The poppy seeds I planted this year were true to color. I have gorgeous doubles: pink, pinkish/red, and light lavender. They were everywhere this year. This is the first year they actually came up in any numbers, so the weather here must have been just right for a change.

  • steelskies
    9 years ago

    some pictures of my double poppies

  • steelskies
    9 years ago

    another picture. Gee, can't figure out how to post more than one picture per post.

  • samhain10 - 5a
    9 years ago

    Steelskies - you have to have an outside photo hosting site such as Photobucket which I'm using. It's free, though they have options for pay-for versions with extras. Anyway, once you've loaded your pics up to the site, you look for where they have the lists of different codes such as html, direct, etc. and choose the html code to copy. Then post the code into this message box. It will look like a paragraph worth of material when you paste it in, but when you preview your message, you will see the image or images if you've pasted in more than one code. If you don't see them, then something went wrong.