create a wildflower meadow

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The Wildflower Meadow
There's almost nothing quite as lovely as a meadow full of wildflowers and grasses swaying in the summer breeze, butterflies flitting around, bees buzzing, birds singing and the sun shining. Sadly, though, the English meadow is rather a rarity, which is bad news for the creatures that rely on the wildflowers found there. However, every little bit helps and gardeners can all do their bit to help the butterflies etc that are reliant on meadow flowers, and, at the same time, also help preserve a little bit of England. If you are lucky enough to have a few acres of land you could consider transforming a portion of it over to meadow. If you have an average sized garden why not apportion, say, the back area of the lawn over to meadow? Or perhaps create a meadow area around a focal point such as a statue or bird bath.

You don't need to necessarily create the meadow area from seed either - unless you are creating quite a large area. You could plant small pots of wildflowers in an area that is already grassed (as long as it is not a vigorous-growing rye grass which will smother the plants). However, when creating a meadow area using this method it is a good idea to grub out patches of grass and sow Yellow Rattle seed - sprinkle onto the soil and roll it in. Yellow Rattle is parasitic and relies on grass for its survival, therefore it is good at controlling grass growth and allowing more wildflowers to thrive. You could do away with grass and just plant lots of wildflowers only. If you intend to create your meadow from seed you need to prepare the seedbed well by rigorously removing all traces of weeds and raking it to a fine tilth to receive the seeds. The disadvantage with growing a meadow from seed is that it will take a couple of years to reach its full flowering glory, but if you are planning a large meadow then creating it from seed is the most economical way of doing it. Planting pot-grown wildflowers gives you an almost instant effect, with most of them flowering in their first year.

Don't confine yourself, though, to a perennial meadow. You could create a gorgeous, vibrant meadow full of Cornflowers, Poppies and Corn Marigolds in the first year of sowing by sowing these annuals direct onto the prepared soil in April. You can also sow annuals as a "nurse" crop for a perennial meadow sowing - sow the annual with the perennial seed and when the annuals germinate they will help protect the developing perennial plants. After flowering you simply cut the annuals back, leaving the perennials to carry on growing. Sowing this way also gives you an almost instant meadow while waiting the two years for the perennial meadow to start flowering.

Consider also if you want a spring-flowering or summer-flowering meadow - for spring-flowering you would plant, say, Cowslips and Fritillaries, and leave the area un-mown until June, when the plants have died down and set seed. If you plan a summer-flowering meadow you would leave it unmown until August sometime (when flowering is over and seed set) and then mow and save the resultant hay. You could even mow the area again in October before winter sets in.

Whatever you decide to do, it will look great and the local wildlife will love you for it! We grow many meadow wildflowers in 7 cm and 9 cm pots (such as Ragged Robin, Cowslips, Bladder Campion, Meadow Clary, to name but a few) which are cheap sizes to plant and can get you started on your meadow. Even cheaper to plant are wildflower plugs. These are available in trays of 50 or 100 (subject to stock being ready) and can be accessed via the Plugs link on the left. We also supply meadow seed mixes for a variety of areas.


Suitable Wildflowers for Meadows or Meadow Areas Yarrow, Lesser Knapweed, Wild Carrot, Lady's Bedstraw, Ox-eye Daisy, Red Campion, Field Scabious, Cowslip, Selfheal, Birds Foot Trefoil, Raged Robin, Musk Mallow, Bladder Campion, Red Clover, Meadow Cranesbill, Meadow Clary, Kidney Vetch, Wild Marjoram, Wild Mignonette, Small Scabious, Toadflax, Viper's Bugloss, Vetch, Yellow Rattle, Corn Marigold, Corn Chamomile, Poppy, Cornflower, Corncockle

wildflowers collection	wildflower plants	meadow seeds	Keen to attract lots of wildlife to your garden? Visit our wildlife gardening section for information.