the common garden poppies are:
Oriental (Papaver orientale)--extreamly long lived perennial, even when neglected in our extream climate, tollerate extream cold in the winter and drought in the summer once established, most common poppy i see for sale up here as a plant
Icelandic (Papaver nudicaule)--short lived perennial, usually considered a biannual but likes to reseed itself, extreamly cold hardy but doesnt like high temps in summers, im assuming in areas with cool summers the individual plants will live longer than the 2 years they do here....im told they are an annual in the Southeast US....second most common i have seen for sale
corn (Papaver rhoeas)--annual, good sized plant.....dont know that i have seen it forsale unless they had it mislabled as an oriental
Californian (Eschscholzia californica)--annual, smallish plant, especially when compared to Papaver species....always on "seed racks" in stores
if you see annual poppy seeds for sale that are not Californians its likely opium poppies(Papaver somniferum) or peony flowered poppies (Papaver somniferum var. paeoniiflorum).....BTW the "Hen and Chicks" poppies that Walmart has on their seed racks, atleast in Montana, are Papaver somniferum :grin:...yah see them for sale alot in "heritage seed" catalogs.....the places that are selling old type cultivar veggies and garden flowers.....and i have yet to see them called "opium poppies" in these catalogs.....some dont even mention they are illegal in some states........the thing that makes growing opium poppies a gray area in even states where its on the books as illegal is that it is rather difficult to prove it is infact an opium poppy and prove that someone that has a few in their garden is growing them for drug use cause if you test any Papaver species they ALL test positive for opiate alkaloids, even your common oriental poppy, they just arent as concentrated........i know of a couple of cases that have been thrown out cause intent to manufacture as well as hard proof that the plants were somniferum and not just something labeled as such could not be proven by the state.....but it still cost the individuals tens of thousands in legal fees
there is another poppy species i see up here in gardens, i call it a "prickly poppy" but that evidentially isnt right cause it doesnt match up with the Argemone species pics that i have found that are commonly called "prickly poppies"