New seeds and Glaucium flavum portrait

I’ve been busy preparing the garden and seedlings for the winter, so only two new species, both drought resistant, were added to the Seeds List this week.
Campanula alliariifolia – a vigorous and floriferous bellflower with large white flowers. I intend to grow it for the edge of the woodland beds.

Glaucium flavum, the Sea poppy, or Yellow horned poppy – a biennial or short-lived perennial for sunny, dry areas of the garden.

And because there is a story behind the seeds of the horn poppy, a short portrait for it.
Glaucium flavum has a large geographical distribution from N. Africa to Europe and Caucasus, and it is also naturalized in other regions, but has become endangered in many of its native habitats on the shorelines and coastal cliffs of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.

I had the occasion to see it growing wild years back, on the shorelines of the Mediterranean Sea in Cabo de Gata, Spain.
Glaucium flavum wild type displays rosettes of blue-grey, deeply sectate leaves covered in long, white hairs, an adaptation to the harsh, dry and windy conditions it grows in, like many other species that occur in the same habitat.

The flower stems are erect and bear bright, yellow flowers, which are followed by narrow, 20-30 cm long capsules – the ‘horns’ from the common name, horned poppy.

I collected a few seeds but didn’t try to germinate them for a few years thinking that due to the origin, it would have no chance of surviving in Ontario.

But two years ago I gave them a try during the winter sowing experiments time. The germination was easy, the seedlings grew well, and were successfully transplanted in the garden.

Winter came, then spring arrived and the rosettes were still OK; I even transplanted a couple (it forms a taproots, I recommend to plant it in the final location).

It started flowering in the summer and it continued sporadically into the fall. It grew taller and a bit more sprawling, as opposed to its mother-plant. This can be explained of course by the different climate here, with more rain during the summer, plus that it hasn’t been too hot this year and it wasn’t planted in pure sand.

Glaucium flavum is an interesting addition for a xeric garden, standing out the whole season due to its beautiful silvery foliage and bright, yellow flowers. Even if biennial, it is worth to repeat the sowing because it is very easy to grow, plus, it can also reseed by itself. In out climate although it formed many capsules, they didn’t contain too many seeds.

Propagation by seeds
It is easy to germinate after a few weeks of cold/moist stratification in the dark at 5-10 C; after the first signs of seedlings, bring the pot under the lights. Or you can germinate the seeds naturally outdoors by sowing in early spring (in our cold climate).