I am so excited to share an amazing tip with you in this week’s video. In it, I explain how to plant annual poppies from seed. Like, right NOW in the dead of winter!
I’ve been using this crazy method for several years now and it always works like a charm. Most of us gardeners are used to either sowing seeds indoors or directly in the garden during the growing season. Well, you don’t need to do that for poppies!
But there’s one more thing you need to know about this week’s video. It’s known as a YouTube “short,” which is any video that is 3 minutes in length or less. And in the case of my poppy video, it’s a “whopping” 1 minutes and 9 seconds!
I love being able to share great tips in a very short time. Why?
- I know you are all super busy so I don’t want to take up too much of your time.
- Certain garden tips really lend themselves to the “short and sweet” delivery.
- I think that makes them more memorable, too.
- This year, I’ll be doing a mix of short and long videos. Most of my longer ones tend to average about 10 minutes.
The most important thing in this video is that you sow the seeds during the winter months. Poppies, and certain other plants, require the cold temperatures in order for their seeds to sprout. When I first heard about this way to plant annual poppies, I was dubious it would work. Well, surprise, surprise! It actually does.
As I mention near the end of the video, I save poppy seeds every year. That means I only had to buy a few seed packets the first year. Then it’s free seeds from that point on. After each flower is finished blooming, I just leave them on the plant. Once the seedpod is dry and crispy, I tap it and listen for individual seeds moving around inside.
When I do, I clip off the pods, place them in an open bag and let them finish drying. I store the seeds in plastic bags until wintertime sowing rolls around again. Pretty simple, right?
One other thing: you probably noticed in the video that I sowed a LOT of seeds! While I do plant a lot of poppy seeds, I have to admit this wasn’t completely intentional. I filmed my hand tossing the seeds once, then decided I should reshoot the scene. And then decided to reshoot it once more! But I certainly do plant quite a few seeds, just in case some winter birds help themselves to a few.
Here’s my video on How to Plant Annual Poppies
So what do you think? Are you going to plant annual poppies? If you are dubious that this could even work, then you definitely need to give it a go! Also, let me know what you think about my shooting YouTube Shorts. Just drop me an email at Susan@SusansintheGarden.com. Here’s a link to all of my Shorts from 2024.
Did you know I have over 650 gardening videos on my YouTube channel? And if you really love to grow flowers, be sure to check out my Flower Garden Videos playlist. That way you can pick and choose what you’d like to watch.