poppy seeds

ladybirdbaby1

i harvested my poppy seeds from last year, just wanted to know, should i just scatter these over the soil this year? or if not how should i plant these?

When should i plant these? i want to be ready!!

redser7

First off, if you can spare them, sow a few indoors in some compost. Just to test that they are viable. If they germinate then great. But dump them as it's early to be sowing. If they don't germinate then the rest probably wont and you should buy a pack of seeds.
You can direct sow in well prepared soil (lightly dug over and raked even with some fertiliser/compost added). Rake the seed in covering them lightly. They can grow quite big so you might want to thin out the seedlings if you get too many coming up together. You could also sow them in modules indoors and plant them out later. Depends on if you are growing in a flower border/bed or going for a wildflower meadow. Depending on weather March or April should be fine to sow.

pwurple

I've had some trouble getting some of them to germinate without scarification (rubbing with sandpaper) or pre-soaking.

Poppies are a very tough little seed, viable ones have been found thousands of years old, so if they don't germinate for you, try damaging the seed a little bit to get through the outer casing. Bought poppyseeds are often pre-treated to get to that stage.

Some poppies grow faster than others... I would only sow californian poppies a few weeks before I want them to flower, others a few months. Do you know what type they are?

ladybirdbaby1

they are either called icelandic or double poppies. i planted both of these last year. i think they might be the double ones///

Northumbria

Icelandic poppies are good, not too hard to establish from seed. They don't always flower in the first year though. But they are perennial and spread along rocky areas quite readily.
If they don't work, just buy a few plants in the garden centre and let them spread.