What Wild Flowers to plant?

There are at least six ways you can introduce wild flowers into your garden or field.

Grass & Wild flowers mixtures that create a wild flower meadow.

Wild flowers from seed mixtures that create a wild flower area.

Wild flowers from seeds  where you  plant and establish a particular species.

Wild flowers from seed to create a border

Wild flowers from bulbs, as with the seeds.

Wild flowers from plug plants. This is an alternative to the seed but can be a quicker and often more effective way of establishing a particular plant.

Wild flowers once established create a haven for wildlife and most of our mixtures will flower from late spring throughout the summer. Once established they need little maintenance but the key is in taking the time over the preparation. We send establishment and maintenance notes with every order for wild flower seed.

Wild flowers do not do well in competitive situations. You need therefore to have made every effort to kill off existing grass and weeds before trying to establish the seed. If sown into or with agricultural or amenity seed then these grasses may well smother the Wild flower seed. We supply meadow grasses that are not as competitive as part of our mixtures.

Establishing Wild Flowers turns conventional gardening on its head. With most gardening you decide where you want to end up and change everything to achieve that. With Wild Flowers you need to judge the existing soil type and conditions and plant a mixture best suited to that situation.

Generally the soil fertility should be low. The seed is best sown on well drained, nutrient poor subsoil. If the ground is particularly fertile you might consider one of the cornfield annual mixtures CWF1 and CWF2. We sell two mixtures and both will give a splash of colour in the summer. By the nature of being annuals they will only last one year. But with some careful management  you can create the situation where by they may reseed each year.

If you choose to go down the Wild flower route then you need to decide whether to plant a grass and wild flower mixture or wild flower only mixture. Wild flower only mixtures can work well on smaller areas but the most popular approach is to plant wild flowers and grass seed based on a 20% /80% ratio.

This creates the effect of the wild flowers flowering amongst the grass, at different times throughout the summer. The grass maintains an attractive backdrop throughout the year.