Recommend wildflower seeds

gadjah543

Our local council has been planting large areas of wildflower seeds which look lovely. I have a large garden which is split in half by a row of trees. The part furthest away from the house has a patio area but not much else apart from grass that could do with getting replaced. It is south facing. I was thinking of buying wildflower seeds and putting it in a couple of areas.

My problem is there is so much choice, firstly between annuals and perennials and secondly between which combination of seed mixture. I like the council mix of blue ( cornflowers? ) yellow , white and red but when i asked on the council website they just said it was an exclusive mix!

Can anyone give me any recommendations of what to buy. Also would this annoy you, if you were our neighbours and were keen gardeners. Thanks

Fosterdog

I love the patches of windflowers popping up everywhere, do you want them just to add colour and brighten up the area or to attract wildlife?

I bought some mixed packs of wildflower seeds on eBay, I got a pack of generic seeds known to attract butterflies and a pack to attract bees. The pack for the bees was sprinkled just a short distance from my fruit and veg growing area and right where I have a bug hotel, the butterfly pack was sprinkled further away just to add colour and attract butterflies. They both seem to have done their jobs well and this year there has been an increase in the number of both in the garden.

If you want to attract pollinators get more bee friendly flowers, possibly look into whether there are any rare species of butterfly in your area and find out what they like.

gadjah543

Yes I definitely want to attract wildlife and have colour so like the idea of different seeds in different areas. Thanks

Davesnave

You are probably best to stick with easy annuals and a few hard to kill perennials, like ox-eye daisy.

It is really quite difficult to grow a perennial wildflower meadow, without research followed by work to deplete nutrients in the soil.

Even my more or less natural native wildflower area is very variable as regards success of different species from one year to the next.

andrewf75

Whatever wildflower mix you choose, I'd recommend sowing yellow rattle seed as well as this plant stops grass taking over

gadjah543

Thanks Andrew that's really useful to know.

arbrighton

It depends whether you want native wildflowers or that look with cornflowers etc

Landlife http://wildflower.co.uk/ is a good place to start for advice/ mixes and is worth a visit if you live anywhere close to liverpool

A quick google for wildflower seed brings up loads of options as depending on the size of the area, the amount you'll need will get expensive with small garden centre packs
We've also used naturescape for mixes for specific soil types, e.g. my parents' very heavy clay, where cornflowers and poppies etc wouldn't stand a chance

Farway

From Freebies board

https://www.growwilduk.com/content/claim-your-free-packet-wild-flower-seeds

I ordered, they ask for country, so I assume they are sort of native for the area of UK

Had similar in 2014, nice mix, some grew some didn't but made an intersting display

arbrighton

Farway wrote: »

From Freebies board

https://www.growwilduk.com/content/claim-your-free-packet-wild-flower-seeds

I ordered, they ask for country, so I assume they are sort of native for the area of UK

Had similar in 2014, nice mix, some grew some didn't but made an intersting display

But, will not cover a big area....

madjackslam

Have you thought about asking the council? See what they use, and they may have some spare/for sale.

arbrighton

OP has already stated they said it was 'an exclusive mix'

But I think a lot of councils use these people, as they do colours

http://pictorialmeadows.co.uk/