Using Wild Flowers

Some native wild flowers, looked upon in scorn by some gardeners, can, when planted in a border, become very attractive indeed. In fact, what is a wild flower or even a weed in some countries, is a desirable plant in others. The fertile conditions enable them to become much bigger plants and bear more flowers than they do in the wild.

Native wild flowers are also very attractive to a wide range of insects, birds and butterflies, so are of great interest to organic gardeners who try to attract as many species as possible in order to maintain a natural balance and thereby do away with the need for chemical controls.

There are many specialist seed and plant suppliers of native wild flowers and most catalogues will carry a few at the very least. Specialist mixtures are available to specifically attract either butterflies, birds or bees. Other collections may include a cornfield mixture or a meadow mix.

Most wild flower seed can be sown straight into the ground in the spring or seeds may be sown in trays in a greenhouse and potted on to make individual plants to be hardened off and transplanted into borders later on.

Most wild flowers do not need very fertile soil and in fact, do better on poorer soils. They are ideal for gardens in new houses where a lot of subsoil has been brought to the surface. It must however, be fairly well drained.

In extremely large gardens, a wild flower meadow could be sown. They are extremely low maintenance and fairly easy to create. Choose an area of ground with low fertility, prepare as you would for an ordinary lawn and then sow a meadow mix of grasses and wild flowers suitable for your soil. Once established, you may find that the balance of flowers varies slightly as some species favour the conditions better than others, but it will soon establish.

The meadow will only require cutting twice a year, once in the early spring as the growth starts and then again in the late summer, after the seeds have set. ( Leave the seed to set as this is next years flower meadow).