Why won’t my Papaver Somniferum Poppies flower?

Question

Hey guys!  I have several poppies. Some are still young but I have 3 that are about 4 1/2 almost 5 months old, and I don’t see any signs of flowering or flowering stem. I’m getting nervous. I have them in a 18″ by 24″ pot. They are fairly big and have giant rosette leaves. I water when the soil is dry at a fingers depth, and use fertilizer about every two weeks during watering. If someone can help me or explain what’s going on, I would really appreciate it. I will leave some pictures below so you can see what I’m talking about

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Answer 1

Poppies flower during periods of Long Days. Once the daylight hours reach 14 to 16 hours per day, then you will start to see flowering.

Answer 2

I will definitely wash them out but yes I live in southern California but the weather is still quite cold with it getting to about 35 at night and 60 during the day and it should be within this range for the next month and a half but they have been growing since November but recently they have gone through this rapid growth and I don't know now what's causing it they have like doubled in size in the past month. I dont know if this means anything. If I washed out my soil quite well how long do you think it might take to start flowering.

Answer 3

I think you are over-fertilizing. Poppies grow naturally in lean soils. When nitrogen is abundant, the nutrient that spurs green growth, plant energy goes into leaves at the expense of flowers. I suggest you stop fertilizing and flood the soil with water to wash out some of the nitrogen. If you are in the southern hemisphere, you probably missed out on blooms this year as poppies are spring bloomers and do not perform well in warmer weather.