Are there less red poppies growing wild

[Snipper]

Seems where I live that there are far less red poppies growing in the verges etc.  Anyone else noticed?  Or is it just where I have been. Essex up to Suffolk. 

[4wd]

A lot of wild plants tend to go through cycles of being scarcity then abundance.
Poppies are annuals and are rarely seen in grass verges unless there's been soil disturbance.
You're more likely to see them in a crop where herbicide has been missed or less effective than normal, or in deliberately left strips along the edges e.g for game cover. 
Also the flowering period is quite brief so easy to miss the few days they are out in places where they are growing

[Snipper]

Strange really as the ground was disturbed in the field at the back of my garden. Scattered some seed over winter and very few grew. Previously when I did this some years ago it look poignantly like the Somme.