Growing Icelandic poppies

Anne Swithinbank’s masterclass on: Icelandic poppies

- Anne Swithinbank

Top Tip

These beautiful poppies with their silken flowers are the best of their tribe for cutting. Briefly searing bases in boiling water helps the blooms to last longer.

Q I love Icelandic poppies, but have never had much luck either in raising them from seed or keeping plants for more than one season. How can I succeed with these lovely plants? Gemma Cairney, Aberdeen, Scotland

A Although Icelandic poppies are described as short-lived perennials, they are mostly grown as biennials or even annuals, so it is quite natural for them to last only one season.

Despite the name, these lovely poppies don’t come from Iceland but the sub-polar regions of Asia and North America. It is easy to imagine how they might last a little longer where cold, dry winters give way to definite springs, rather than the mild, wet and variable winters of the UK. There is no shame in buying young plants or sizeable ones in bud, enjoying their blooms and letting them die off, but do leave seed pods to develop, as they often self-sow.