Growing Channel Island Bush Poppy
Dendromecon harfordii on CA's Central Coast
Plant Selection
My landscaping plan called for a small tree centrally located in one side of my front yard. I wanted a bit of vertical structure in the space, and while I didn’t want a solid screen, if strategically located, it could effectively screen the view from my kitchen window to the neighbor’s window across the street.
So what plant to choose? The rest of the front yard was primarily plants found in the dune environment located a half mile from the house, but one problem arose, there weren’t many small trees growing on the dunes. The dunes were covered in primarily low lying shrubs. Coffeeberry was a large shrub/small tree option in theory, but all the coffeeberry I saw on my visits were sprawling, shrub-like and conformed to the wind.
Enter my neighbors yard. He landscaped with natives many years back and the plants were all well established. In the corner was a Channel Island Tree Poppy, which was healthy and seemed to happily bloom all year round. While nearly all other plants on the property were locally native (found naturally within a few mile circumference from the house), I decided to make an exception in this case. I’d seen the closely related Bush Poppy on my trail runs in the area, but that plant had a smaller stature and a few sites mentioned keeping it sheltered from wind, something that wouldn’t be possible in my front yard on a east west oriented street near the coast.
So the Channel Island variety again became the primary option. Additionally, Calscape claimed it could “grow to 6 feet in two years”. I decided to find out if that was true.
Finding the Elusive Dendromecon Harfordii
Locating a Tree Poppy would prove more difficult than simply deciding to plant one. I checked online inventories, called and emailed numerous native nurseries in the area. Finally, I got a promising response from the Oaktown Nursery. They had one in a five gallon pot, which was recently planted. I should check back in a month to see whether it would be ready for sale. And so I did, picking it up in early December. It appears healthy with new growth and I left optimistic and with the instructions to leave it in the pot a few additional months to let the roots get more established.
April 2024
I don’t recall the exact date of planting but I believe it fell sometime in February. By that point it already had a bloom or two on it and didn’t skip a beat, continuing to bloom in spring.
June 2024
The plan is now 18” tall, so it hasn’t grown too much in height but it’s also now 24” wide spreading in all directions. It looks very healthy and has been continuously blooming for months.
September 2024
This plant continues to bloom. Perhaps not quite as flush as it was a few months ago but there seems to always be at least one bloom on the plant at any given time, even this deep into the dry season. My watering schedule has dropped to every two weeks and I may space it out even longer. It’s now roughly 20” tall and 32” in diameter
Check back for more future updates. Or just reach out and I’ll share progress.
Volunteer Bush Poppies
Remember when I mentioned my neighbors bush poppy providing inspiration for my choice? Well a few volunteer poppies sprouted in my side yard within a few feet radius of his. At first I wasn’t sure what they were, largely because the leaves appeared to be much larger than those on his plant, but after talking with him he seemed sure that they were in fact bush poppies. It’s unclear whether they are suckers sprouting from the base or if they sprouted from seed. Everything I’d previously read made it sound as if germination was difficult and sometimes required fire. Well I can assure you there has been no fire in my front side yard. Regardless, here they were. I haven’t decided what to do with them as of yet. Let them stay or perhaps keep the one that is a bit further from the fence.
