(Eschscholzia californica)

California poppy

1 ounce package will cover about 150 square feet.  A four-ounce package covers 600 square feet.

For larger areas figure planting 15 pounds per acre. Approximately 230,000 seeds per pound.  Seeds are tiny, it is recommended you mix with sand to spread.

Delicate, silky orange blossoms come to life as early as February and continue to bloom until October here in California.  Drought tolerant, deer resistant and once planted maintenance free.  Will reseed itself year after year. Loves disturbed areas and in fact even grows in areas that have been damaged by fire. 

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"The indigenous California Indians used this poppy as both a source of food and medicine. Several groups boiled the plant, or roasted it on host stones, to eat as a green. The Costanoan Indians rubbed a decoction of the flowers in the hair to kill lice; the Indians of Mendocino County used a poultice of fresh root for toothaches and a topically applied extract for headaches and sores; and Cahuilla women used the pollen as a cosmetic and the whole plant as a sedative for babies. Medicinally, California poppy is a plant with sedative, analgesic and antispastic activities, but unlike the alkaloids of the opium poppy, it does not seem to induce tolerance and dependence. It is touted by some for the treatment of anxiety and to induce sleep in patients affected with insomnia."  – Susan Mahr, University of Wisconsin