Renees Garden (reneesgarden.com) offers the seeds of several California poppy varieties and mixes: Buttercream, whose nearly white flowers have a hint of yellow; Copper Pot, with burnt orange blooms; Dusky Rose, showing off colors in the pink to magenta to wine red spectrum; Tropical Sunset, a mix of fiery gold, orange and red; Tequila Sunrise, consisting of “luminous soft cream” and “stained glass red” flowers.

There are other poppies you might try, as easily germinated as our own native species. The corn or “Flanders Fields” poppy (Papaver rhoeas) is often seen on the lapels of people collecting for war veterans. This tradition started during World War I with the publication of poems that depicted the red poppies growing on the battlefields and between the soldiers’ graves in Flanders, Belgium, as if they were the blood of fallen heroes. Shirley poppies, bred from corn poppies outside Shirley, England, in the 1880s, come up in red, pink, rose, lilac, salmon and white. Among them is a double-flowered variety known as French Flounce with thickly ruffled or fringed blossoms. Peony poppies (Papaver paeoniflorum) have dense peony- or roselike blooms. They grow effortlessly from seed and are close relatives of opium poppy (Papaver somniferum). Be advised that any poppy species, if overly consumed, will produce narcotic, if not toxic, effects.

Poppies have a tendency to self-sow or naturalize in the garden. Other plants that do this include love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena). It’s not only pleasantly named but beautifully adorned as well. Very finely laced foliage complements flowers that are mostly sky blue but occasionally royal blue. Seed capsules are exotic-looking, tentacled globes. Love-in-a-mist is a fitting companion to larkspur (Consolida ajacis), whose flower spires also appear in various versions of blue, mauve and purple. Bachelor buttons or cornflowers (Centaurea cyanus) are also notable for their blue blooms. The three species mentioned here have been grouped for their blue flowers, yet all are sometimes, if less frequently, seen in pink or rose as well.

Hollyhock (Alcea rosea), often seen growing in vacant lots, is the paradigm of a plant that thrives on neglect. It sprouts in asphalt and concrete as long as there is a tiny crack in which a seed can nestle and a few drops of water can collect. It is most often seen in shades of pink, red and burgundy, but white and yellow hollyhocks are also available. It will self-sow with alacrity, reaching 6 feet tall or more with hibiscuslike blooms studded along its flower stalks.

If you have ever been to Catalina Island, you will have marveled at the naturalizing stand of perennials known as pride of Madeira (Echium candicans) on elevated terrain overlooking the entrance to the renovated casino building. At one time, my own front yard had turned into a veritable pride-of-Madeira forest thanks to the self-sowing proclivity of this plant.

Moving to naturalizing herbs, you can choose from cilantro or coriander (Coriandrum sativum), borage (Borago officinalis) and feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium). And don’t forget nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus), whose flowers and leaves are edible and whose giant seeds are great for kids to plant.

If you have a slope (or open terrain, for that matter) that was burned and you wish to get ready for seed planting, do the following. Clear the ground of rocks and debris of every kind. Do not remove roots of burnt plants since they will help to prevent erosion, and the plants that they supported may yet regrow. Use a bow rake, with forged metal tines, to grade and smooth the terrain. Use the tine side for raking debris into piles and for rough grading, then flip the rake over and use the bow side for smoothing. You can flip the rake back to the tine side to make grooves in the soil surface. These grooves will give the seeds a foothold and decrease the likelihood of them being washed away by rain or irrigation. If the slope is very steep and erosion is a major concern, you will also want to lay down some jute netting and plant within the open spaces that the netting provides.

Sun-exposed slopes are hotter than level ground, so it is essential that you consider installing an irrigation system if you have sloping terrain. Slow-moving rotary sprinklers are advisable for slopes since their leisurely rate of water will minimize runoff. Drip irrigation on slopes is also an option but is more expensive to install and maintain. If you have a small slope, you may wish to consider hand watering. The gentle spray of a fan nozzle hose attachment is appropriate for watering slopes, since use of such a nozzle will mitigate erosion and runoff.

By the way, you will want to broadcast your seeds as evenly as possible and you can do this by mixing 1 part seed with 9 parts construction-grade sand. Scatter seeds by hand or, for more precise application, use a handheld seed spreader. In the absence of rain, cover your seeds with a thin layer of compost, Nitrohumus or some other soil amendment to act as a water blotter, holding in moisture until the seeds have turned into plants with roots that can mine for water on their own.

Do you have a personal poppy story you would like to share with readers of this column? If so, send it to joshua@perfectplants.com. Your questions and comments, as well as gardening challenges and successes, are always welcome.