Planting Poppies

It rained this morning. Briefly turned to snow, then back to rain. The warm weather the past few days has been melting the snow and the rain this morning washed even more away. I'm glad to see it. This is New Jersey. The snow was pretty when it fell and for about a day afterwards but after that it just got dirtier and uglier by the day.

I'm glad the snow is going for another reason. I have to plant poppy seeds. I've lost track of the nmber of times I have tried to grow poppies. The seeds never germinate for me. I researched the problem and discovered they need cold to germinate, so I tried keeping them in the fridge prior to planting. That didn't work. So this year I am trying a radical solution that I have read about and am going to plant them in February. There's just one problem with that. Snow. Can't plant seeds with a foot of snow on the ground. The suggested solution is to just sprinkle them on top of the snow. With all the birds and squirrels feeding in my yard, I don't think that would work. How do I make them differentiate between seed they can eat and seed I am trying to grow? Nope, I need the snow to melt so I can plant my seeds and then it can snow again all it wants.

If it doesn't work, it's no big deal. The seeds didn't cost me anything. I was at our local library one day last summer and saw the prettiest flower growing amongst the shrubbery. It had seedpods and I automatically picked a few. I was collecting seeds every day in my own gardens and it had literally become a habit. Just one tiny problem. I had nothing to put the pods in and they were leaking seeds all over. So I drove home with one hand full of seeds and the other hand on the steering wheel fervently grateful that I no longer drive a stick. Judging from the seeds and the pods, I was pretty sure it was a poppy and a little research confirmed this. I went back to the library a few more times and gathered some more seeds. Now I am just waiting for the snow to melt enough so that I can get the seeds into the ground.