Poppies- Black Peony help!

I bought these as seeds and this is what it said on the package:

"Poppy-Black Peony
Papaver paeoniflorum These poppies will stir your imagination, sparking new and exciting landscaping ideas. Big double blooms are heavily set with tight ruffled petals. Stunning dark purple peony-shaped flowers reach 5 inches across! One glance, and Black Peony's radiant color will catch and hold your eye. Plants grow to 4 feet. Germination code: (4)
In the same family as California Poppy, and primarily native to the Old World, these poppies are graced with more abundant foliage and larger flowers. They bloom from mid to late-summer, and the season can be extended if they are kept dead-headed. Will self sow"

So they sprouted, grew quite big and bloomed, very pretty! With all the rain this year and hard rain they kind of got pummeled and flattened. I decided to cut them back and save the little pods and any flowers left.

What do I do with the pods so they will self sow again next year? Should I dry the pods and save them or mix them in with the dirt now and hope they come back next year?

 

Does not look like the pods are ripe enough to contain viable seed. Better to let them dry on the plant. These kind of pods are often left on the plant for ornamental purposes and used in dried arrangements.

It is actually not legal to grow that plant as it is really a double form of opium poppy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_poppy

 

I had to cut the pods off the plant already as the plants got pummeled by all the rain storms we had and were flattened.

Could I just lay the pods out on newspaper to dry? Collect the seeds and plant them in the spring?

It isn't illegal to grow this kind of poppy, if I had an opioid factory in my house using the flowers to make some sort of illegal substance, then perhaps I would have a problem. The flowers are for my friends, family and personal enjoyment :)

 

You can try drying them. If there are no good seed, you can always buy more and hope for better weather next time. I grew these some years back. They come in several other nice colours as well.

 

libtech,
We have a gremlin in our neighborhood that has noted the location of every opium poppy, keeps ans eye on them and then harvests all the pods when they ripen. The pods just suddenly disappear one night. It would be nice if he/she left at least a few seeds for next year's harvest. barb

 

Whomever is harvesting your Papaver somnifera seedheads is likely doing it for horticultural or culinary reasons, though I agree that it is outrageous for them to take them all (or even a few) without permission. The drug can only be obtained from slashing the unripe heads, which I believe must be left on the plant during the process.
I understood that the name Papaver paeoniflorum was just a convenient pseudonym used to make folks feel more comfortable about growing so called "opium poppies". They could just as well be called double "breadseed" poppies since they are the same seeds you find for sale in the grocery or on your poppyseed bagel.

 

di-van, I've told this story before but maybe bears repeating. My Grandmother suddenly noticed that her favorite poppies had not returned one year. Checked all her usual catalogs for replacement seeds and found none! Realizing that plants come and go in favor so she assumed she'd lost one of her favorite flowers. In 1976 I was in a small town Illinois. There were poppies everywhere. I asked an Aunt we were visiting to send me some seeds when they ripened. She did and I sent them to Grandma saying "here are your poppies". She said she thought long and hard about planting them and could just see the headlines, "90 yr old Grandmother busted for growing Opium Poppies". That did not set well so she said she made some buns, rolled them in the seeds and ate them! This is the same woman who as a young girl had her father - a preacher- tell her that he thought that Cannabis sativa was one of the most beautiful plants God ever made. Times and tides. :))) barb