Double Black Poppy, Full Nearly Black Blooms, Breadseed Poppy

Papaver somniferum has been a kitchen and garden staple for generations, but the Double Black selection is truly the pinnacle of its ornamental evolution.

• The "Peony" Aesthetic: These poppies are world-renowned for their "peony-flowered" form. Each bloom consists of dense, ruffled, multi-layered petals that form a luxurious, dense sphere, providing a heavy, high-end look that is surprisingly easy to grow.
• The Architectural Pod: Beyond the spectacular blooms, this variety is highly prized for its large, sculptural "pepper-pot" shaped seed pods. These pods stand tall long after the petals fall, adding a gothic, architectural element to the late-summer garden and serving as an ideal addition to dried floral arrangements.
• A Naturalized Beauty: This is a gardener’s poppy—robust, reliable, and more than happy to "help out" with next year's planting. If you leave the pods to mature, they will naturally self-seed in your garden beds, ensuring you enjoy these moody, dark-purple blooms for many seasons to come.

Double Black is a plant of refined mystery, offering a color profile that absorbs the light and provides the perfect backdrop for brighter, neon-colored summer flowers.

• The Blooms: The flowers are deeply saturated—a dark, intense purple that appears nearly black—providing a moody, sophisticated contrast to any border. The petals are beautifully ruffled and thick, giving them a velvety appearance.
• The Habit: Reaching heights of up to 32 inches, this poppy has a clumping and spreading habit that fills empty spaces in the garden with lush, blue-green foliage and dramatic, upright flower spikes.
• Pollinator Magnet: Like all somniferum poppies, the wide-open centers of the blooms (when they first open) are incredibly attractive to bees and other garden pollinators.

"Double Black is the 'gothic' beauty of the summer garden. We love it because the color is so incredibly deep; it looks like crushed velvet against the blue-green leaves. It’s a variety that does the heavy lifting for you—you get spectacular, peony-like flowers in the summer and a supply of sculptural seed pods for your winter crafts in the fall."

• Cold Stratification: These seeds are "old souls"—they require a cool period of 2–4 weeks to break dormancy. For the best germination, sow seeds outdoors in late autumn or early spring, or place them in the refrigerator for a few weeks before planting.
• Sowing: Surface-sow onto finely raked, well-draining soil. These seeds require light to sprout, so do not bury them—just press them firmly into the soil surface.
• Naturalizing: To ensure your "Double Black" display returns, allow the seed pods to dry completely on the stalk. The pods will naturally spill their seeds, granting you a beautiful, self-seeded display the following year.