Editor's note: Master Gardeners are keeping busy in their own gardens during Napa County's “Shelter in Place” directive. It's spring, it's getting warmer, it's a great time to work in the garden! Here's how Master Gardeners are spending their time:
California Poppy-Eschscholzia California (Papaveraceae family)
By Linda McClimans
The Poppy, California's State Flower, is native from western Oregon to Baja California, but its range extends to southern Washington, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Sonora Mexico. It was named for the surgeon/entomologist J.F. Eschscholtz who was on a Russian expedition that dropped anchor in San Francisco Bay in 1816. It was designated state flower by the California State Floral Society in 1890 and made official in 1903.
According to the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden, the poppy is technically an annual but will “perennial-ize” by sprouting the following year from their roots and lower stems or by reseeding.
In Napa's Mediterranean climate, sow the seeds shallowly and directly in the ground in fall. Seeds will germinate after fall rains or when the soil warms up and will bloom in spring and early summer. Then the tops will die back, seeds will drop and the plants become dormant. When mature, seedpods snap audibly and scatter the seeds. To save the seeds, pick off pods before they are completely mature and keep in a dry container. Seeds readily germinate the next year. Unless there is very little rain, watering is not usually needed. Even with very little rain this year in Napa County, poppies are profuse on untended hillsides. Growth is best in full sun. These poppies are obviously drought tolerant.
Plants grow 2-24 inches tall with branching, divided, blue-green foliage. Flowers are solitary on long stems with four distinctly large petals. Flowers close at night and on overcast days.
Seed catalogs now offer many different colors (white, cream, yellow, apricot, orange, pink, rose, scarlet, and purple) and styles (frilly, ruffled, semi double and double). They do not make good cut flowers as petals readily drop.
References:
California Poppies by Sue Rideout, UC Master Gardener 4/12/2012
https://ucanr.edu/datastoreFiles268-523
USDA/US Forest Service
https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/eschscholzia_california.shtml
The California Poppy by Michelle Le Strange, UC Master Gardener Advisor 5/10/2007
http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/datastore/268-304
UC Davis Arboretum-plants for bees
https://arboretum.ucdavis.edu/blog/support-california-native-bees-these-10-plants
During Napa County's shelter in place directive that protects everyone's health and safety, Napa Master Gardeners are available to answer garden questions by email: mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. or phone at 707-253-4143. Volunteers will get back to you after they research answers to your questions.
Visit our website: napamg.ucanr.edu to find answers to all of your horticultural questions.
Photo credits: This photograph was taken by Master Gardener Penny Proteau on 4/2/2020 at Moore Creek Park.