How to create a wildflower area

[TreasuredMim]

Have a patch of poor soil, fairly shady, that I want to sow with wild flowers.

Was going to buy some wild flower seeds and scatter some now and some in Spring. Any chance this will produce the desired effect?

I did this this year with a mix of perennials and annuals. The display was amazing - not sure how it will fare next year. It has spring a ton of weeds all over my garden though- but be worth it if I can get the perennial meadow going.

I sewed in March, raking before . I had bare poor sandy soil .

I saw this mixed used at a National Trust property and it was gorgeous: www.pictorialmeadows.co.uk/product/pixie/

What is your desired effect?

The “wildflower “ plantings that you see in parks and along urban roads are a sowing of annuals, not always all wild, and often not all uk, of the sort of plants that would be “cornfield weeds”. They need the soil to be turned over every winter, so they have bare soil and no competition , and they need sunshine.

The “hay meadow” effect needs low nutrient (otherwise the grass has too much of an advantage) and perennial plants, which allows you to cut the grass and remove it when it’s at its highest nutrient level even if the flowers haven’t seeded. It also needs sunshine.

So in your situation, you might want to consider a woodland edge effect, eg primroses followed by things like red campion, stitchwort, bugle, yellow archangel

Thanks to each of you for your informed responses - all very helpful.

The desired effect I'm hoping for is something better than the patch of weed infested soil I currently have. Am quite open to the area doing it's own thing in that I don’t need particular colours or heights or types of flowers. Happy to see what happens but would like the soil to be a mass of flowers rather than just the odd one or two poking up out of the dirt.

Clearly the shade issue is more relevant than I'd realised so pleased to receive our guidance on planting.

I wouldn't overthink it! We have terrible soil, sowed a mixed seed batch (from Sarah Raven), all British native: sowed in October 2019, spring came and everything bloomed! It was fabulous all summer.

Did one big cut (down to about 4 inches high the whole lawn) in September and let it regrow. This year has been totally different - we had a full lawn of chamomile, it was delightful.

My wildgarden gives us so much pleasure, the bees, butterflies and bugs in our little urban garden (S. London). Amazing. Half of ours is in the shade and it's not quite as jubilant as the sunny bit but plenty of life and interest. The point of wildflowers is they can pretty much survive any conditions, especially if you go British native.

I literally just had a landscaper telling me you can buy wildflower turf- I'm quite tempted but apparently its ££

The turf is also sometimes held to gether with a plastic mesh which can make things tricky in the future if you want to remove or plant bulbs...

I have a wild flower patch which is mostly full of grass. I need yellow rattle in it to combat the grass roots, not sure where I get yellow rattle from. I think I’m going to have to actually plant some ‘bastard’ plants that spread profusely that’ll cope with fighting with the grass.

I tried putting wildflower seeds in another area that was just earth but they didn’t work at all as there’s no sun there. But I have another seed packet of wildflowers for shaded areas, so I’ll give that a go.

Yellow Rattle :)

www.naturescape.co.uk/?s=yellow+rattle&search_id=1&post_type=product

Thank you BrownCurlsAmberEyes 😁

[quote BrownCurlsAmberEyes]Yellow Rattle :)

www.naturescape.co.uk/?s=yellow+rattle&search_id=1&post_type=product[/quote]
Yellow rattle really doesn’t like shade. And it’s an obligate hemi parasite on grass. In a bare patch it will just starve.

For lowland areas, red bartsia is closely related to yellow rattle and is another hemi parasite on grass.

@TreasuredMim what weeds do you have? That will give you a clue as to what will grow

MereDintofPandiculation There have been dandelions but not much else I'd consider weeds. There's been bluebells, foxgloves and those pretty blue flowered nettles that spread everywhere, plus random bits of holly, ivy and evergreen honeysuckle that have sprouted from a closeby hedge.

Meredinto thanks… my sunny wildflower area is the one that needs yellow rattle or red bartsia. My shaded wildflower garden is the real problem, not even weeds grow there. I think you’ll have more success than me . I’m going to have to do something else with it, maybe a fairy garden and colourful rocks.

@TreasuredMim

MereDintofPandiculation There have been dandelions but not much else I'd consider weeds. There's been bluebells, foxgloves and those pretty blue flowered nettles that spread everywhere, plus random bits of holly, ivy and evergreen honeysuckle that have sprouted from a closeby hedge.

That’s promising. Shows it’s capable of growing something.