How to Grow a Poppy Lauren's Grape

Sun

Full sun for six to eight hours a day is the minimum for sturdy upright stems and a heavy bloom. Less sun produces leggy floppy plants with fewer flowers. A spot that catches the morning sun and stays sunny through midday usually works well.

Drainage

Free-draining soil is required. The seeds rot in soggy ground, and a young plant in standing water collapses within days. Dig a one-foot test hole and fill it with water. If it drains within a few hours, the spot is fine. If water sits, raise the bed or pick a different site.

Soil

A loose loamy soil with moderate organic matter suits the plant best. Avoid heavy clay or freshly amended beds piled high with compost, which produce big floppy plants instead of strong upright stems. A neutral to slightly alkaline soil works fine, while strongly acidic ground produces stunted plants.

Space

Direct sow seed thinly across the bed, then thin seedlings to about 8 to 12 inches apart once they are a few inches tall. Crowded plants stay small, flop sideways, and bloom poorly. The thinned seedlings cannot be transplanted, since Lauren's Grape resents root disturbance. Compost the extras rather than trying to save them.

Watering

Keep the seedbed lightly moist until seedlings emerge, then water deeply once a week through dry weather. Drip irrigation or a soaker hose at the base works best, since splashing the foliage encourages leaf diseases.

Lauren's Grape is fairly drought-tolerant once the basal rosette has formed. Soak deeply through extended dry spells in late spring as the flower buds form, since dry conditions at that stage produce smaller blooms with thinner petals. Cut back on water once flowering ends and the seed pods are developing.

Feeding

Annual poppies need very little fertilizer. A light incorporation of compost into the bed before sowing usually carries the plants through the whole season. Heavy feeding produces oversized floppy plants with weak stems that fall over after the first hard rain.

If the leaves look pale yellow rather than the usual green-grey, a single light feeding of a balanced fertilizer at half strength as the buds form gives the plant a small boost. Stop feeding entirely once the flowers are open.

Deadheading or letting it go to seed

Deadheading prolongs the bloom window by a couple of weeks. Snip each spent flower at the base of its stem with sharp small pruners. The plant responds by pushing one or two more flowering stems from buds along the main stem.

Leaving the spent blooms in place produces the sculptural blue-grey seed pods that Lauren's Grape is also grown for, plus a generous self-sown crop of seedlings for the following year. Most growers split the difference, deadheading half the plants for a longer bloom show and letting the rest set seed.

End-of-season cleanup

Once the plants have fully browned out in midsummer, pull or cut them at the base and compost the foliage. Save a few dried seed pods for replanting next year if a self-sown patch is not the goal. Lauren's Grape comes true from saved seed.

Bloom timing

Blooms open in late spring through early summer, depending on when the seed was sown and how warm the spring has been. A fall sowing typically produces the earliest and largest plants. The whole bloom window for a single planting usually lasts three to four weeks, with each individual flower open for only a couple of days.

Cutting for arrangements

Lauren's Grape blooms are short-lived in a vase, lasting only one to two days. Cut the stems just as the buds are starting to crack open rather than after the flowers are fully unfurled. Sear the cut end with a flame or boiling water for ten seconds to seal the sap and extend the vase life.

The seed pods cut beautifully for dried arrangements. Harvest the pods once they have turned a dusty blue-grey and the stems below them have dried. Hang the cut stems upside down in a dry airy spot for a week, then add them to dried wreaths and bouquets that hold their shape for months.

Self-sowing for next year

Lauren's Grape self-sows generously if a few seed pods are left to ripen and shatter naturally. Volunteer seedlings appear the following spring exactly where the seed dropped, with minimal effort from the gardener. The volunteers come true to the same plum-purple bloom color year after year.

Poor germination

Usually because the seed was buried too deep or the seedbed was kept too dry through germination. Lauren's Grape seed needs light to sprout, so the seed sits on the soil surface rather than under it. Keep the seedbed lightly moist with a fine spray until seedlings appear, which can take two to three weeks in cool soil.

Leggy floppy plants that fall over

Caused by too much shade, too much fertilizer, or both. The plant stretches toward the light and the soft fertilized growth cannot hold itself upright. Move next year's sowing to a sunnier spot and skip the fertilizer beyond the light compost incorporated into the bed.

Aphids on flower buds

Small green or black insects clustered on developing flower buds and stem tips in late spring. Knock them off with a strong spray of water. Heavy infestations respond to insecticidal soap. Ladybugs eat aphids faster than any spray, so plant a few yarrows or sweet alyssum nearby to attract them.

White powdery film on leaves

Powdery mildew, most common in humid weather with poor airflow. Thin overcrowded seedlings to the recommended spacing, water at the base instead of splashing the foliage, and remove the most heavily affected leaves. Heavy outbreaks late in the season are usually tolerated, since the plant is close to the end of its life cycle anyway.

Slug or snail damage on young seedlings

Ragged irregular holes in the leaves of seedlings overnight, often with slime trails. Set out shallow saucers of beer or strips of copper around the seedbed. Iron phosphate slug bait works well and is safer for pets and wildlife than older slug poisons.

Seedlings transplanted that never bounce back

Lauren's Grape resents root disturbance, so the seedlings cannot be moved successfully after they have started to grow. Direct sow rather than starting in pots, and thin in place with small scissors at soil level rather than pulling. Compost the thinned seedlings rather than trying to save them in a new spot.

No blooms despite healthy foliage

Usually a sowing-timing issue. A spring sowing that started too late produces plants that put all of their energy into foliage and never have time to flower before summer heat ends the cycle. Sow in fall or very late winter for the strongest plants and the best bloom.

Damping off in cool wet weather

Seedlings collapse at the soil line within days of emerging. Caused by a fungal infection in cold soggy soil. Avoid overwatering the seedbed and thin seedlings early so airflow can dry the soil surface between waterings. Sterile seedbed preparation reduces the risk in problem areas.

Birds eating the seed

Sparrows, finches, and other small seed-eating birds love poppy seed and can clear a freshly sown bed in a single afternoon. Cover the seedbed with floating row cover or fine bird netting until the seedlings are an inch or two tall, then remove the cover so the plants get full light.