Wildflower Seeds are the Best

by Kathleen
(Nashua, NH)

I love flowers, and I love having a garden, but I've never been much for any specific type of flower. I just like having bright colors and the fun of watching things grow. This makes wildflowers pretty perfect for me! Here's a little bit about what I do in my wildflower garden.

Every year I pick up some packets of wildflower seeds. I used to buy random packets from my local supermarket, but not everything was growing very well. I found out that if I ordered through seed catalogs, I could get mixtures with tons of different kinds of wildflowers that were all plants that would grow well in my region (the east coast). Now I do that so I can count on my garden looking great.

I take the mixtures and plant them. I try to pay as little attention as possible when I plant them so that everything that grows will be a surprise to me. After my garden is all grown I have so much fun trying to figure out what flowers are in it. Some flowers that I think I've had include daisies, cornflower, and Black-eyed Susan.

I get a kick out of people asking me what I've planted in my garden and being able to tell them that I'm not sure. If you're like me and just enjoy seeing pretty flowers, you should try growing a wildflower garden. It's a great springtime surprise and it's a great way to actually have fun learning about plants. I know way more about flowers now then I did before I started my wildflower garden.

There is an explosion of summer color available in a small seed envelope or even a can for just a few dollars. Of course one can spend a lot more getting a custom mix, but the plain old cans of wildflower seeds in the garden department of the big box stores are beautiful too.

I planted wildflower the first time in between my giant sunflowers to take up the space. I bought one or two envelopes of cheap wildflower seeds to populate the spaces between my sunflowers in a planting area that was about two feet by a hundred and five feet. I was pleasantly surprised at what popped up between the sunflowers. My first planting yielded a natural fence of big green sunflower stalks and leaves topped with giant yellow flowers that were like the fence post caps with the wildflowers acting as the boards of the fence.

I would just stand out there and look at the flowers. I remember looking at my natural fence row once while mowing. I was enjoying the view so much that I went off course with the riding tractor! Up popped blues and yellow, and deep hues of red that were so dark they almost looked like a light brown. The colors up close were velvety in some spots, shiny in other, velvety on this wildflower, and glowing on another.

When choosing what wildflowers to plant, just make sure they are hardy to your region. If they are, and you choose the right spot, many will come back next year! Depends on if you mow them down before they go to seed or not. Look on the can or envelopes to make sure there aren't any varieties that will grow to tall or too short for what you want.

If you have a large area to plant, you can make a place of color that will stop traffic! If you have a tiny spot, the color will still be there in a smaller portion. Try a sprinkling of wildflower seeds this year if you have a spot where you want color, but not have to worry about it.

Wildflower Seed on eBay