Wild flower seed mix

Go for British grown native mixes
From somewhere like
www.wildflower.co.uk/products/wildflower-seed-mixtures/100-wildflower-seed-mixtures/
britishwildflowermeadowseeds.co.uk/
You need seeds that are suited to your area and the particular environment
Poppies for example need disturbed soil. Some species need light souls some heavier souls, Often "wildflower' mixes have non native species such as California Poppy which isn't native unless you're in somewhere like California.
So you want annuals or perennials, if you want annuals to come again another year you need to let them seed. Perennials need mowing at the right time of year so will look a bit unkempt for a short while, if you don't mow a meadow the flowers get choked out by grasses, it has to be done at the right time too
Insects don't only need nectar they need somewhere to lay their eggs and for the caterpillars to eat.

Where’s the dividing line is a great question Maisie a wild flower is a flower that hasn’t been altered for us I believe
it’s still in its original natural state without any poking and prodding to make it ‘more beautiful’
what’s the difference between a weed and a wild flower … I don’t think there is, just the name and mindset

My garden is mainly wild flowers , dotted with patches and pots of cultivated I ve got so interested in our beautiful wild flowers and weeds that I am photographing them all individually and making myself a book
I bought packs from Poundland wilko B and M and gave a donation to a bee friendly website for a couple of packets and a friend sent me a packet too
The one thing I had no success with was an impregnated birthday card which did absolutely nothing
I love the names too
Corn cockle, fiddleneck, vipers Buglass, Bishops weed, scarlet cinquefoil, purple toadflax, rose bay willow herb and on and on

Baggs

*Weeds are wild flowers, though. Just not pretty ones...*

Actually, a lot of them are pretty. We have loads of self-seeded wild flowers in our garden and they are lovely. Not particularly 'tidy' but if you want tidy you don't want wild flowers.

I should have gone a bit further with that point, really

I rather think that the poster who warned of 'weeds' wasn't quite thinking it through, because the wild flowers which the OP wants to cultivate are also 'weeds', or have been categorised as such in the past.

Where is the dividing line between a 'weed' and a desirable garden plant? Is there one?

Weeds are wild flowers, though. Just not pretty ones...

Actually, a lot of them are pretty. We have loads of self-seeded wild flowers in our garden and they are lovely. Not particularly 'tidy' but if you want tidy you don't want wild flowers.

Weeds are wild flowers, though. Just not pretty ones...

The more I think about this the more I think, despite various articles from the likes of the RHS and Gardeners world that say you can plant wild flowers in containers, that trying to plant up a small space isn't the best idea because of the problem of getting a succession of plants flowering over the summer. Attempting that might result in having so few plants of each successive flowerer (if you can see what I mean) that the effect is spotty rather than impressive.

I'd put the 'wild flowers' that don't mind a richer soil in amongst the ordinary flowers in the garden beds and plant the container with long flowering plants which are attractive to bees and other insects. They don't particularly care if the flowers are 'wild' or 'tame'.

OP hasn't come back, I note. I wonder what they think of our suggestions...

They need planting in bare soil , early spring probably best, lots of weeds will come up as well

Sarah Raven's cottage garden mix every time. It's not wild flowers but gives a very similar effect and it lasts months not weeks. Equally importantly bees and other insects adore it.

A planter only one metre square isn’t going to need a whole box of seed or have enough space for many plants to thrive unless you do a lot of thinning.

The visual appeal of seeing meadows and verges sown with wildflower mixes is the scale and the sound if you can get close. Happy memories of summer holidays in alpine regions, hearing the buzz and hum of masses of insects feeding on the nectar.

I think you would do better to have just two to four chosen species, maybe cultivars of wild plants, that will give you a nice mix of colours, leaves and height. Sarah Raven does a good range. This time of year you can get some bargains as retailers sell off stock.

Raven sells Echium vulgare Blue Bedder (200 seeds in a pack) and Calendula offincinalis Indian Prince (125 seeds in a pack) at a two-pack which will attract butterflies and bees. Add some Eschscholzia californica maybe Fire Bush (100 seeds in a pack) which is a deep rusty orange and something white perhaps Cosmos bipinnatus Dwarf Sensation White (100 seeds in a pack). Goldfinches feasting on the seedheads.

You could buy the four individual packs for under £10 (excluding P&P if you buy online but many garden centres do stock the range) and have over 525 seeds. That's plenty to share, sow elsewhere or hold over to next season.

If that doesn’t appeal, just put wildflower in the search box for more choice:

www.sarahraven.com/

She does do a variety of boxed mixes too.

My garden used to be pasture, so we already have ox eye daisies (quite invasive here), dog violets and cornflowers - but no poppies. I collect the seed (there's loads) and scatter it on the verges, with some success. Dog violet seed pods go in a tall jar - as they explode sending seeds everywhere. In April, though, the council tend to kill everything with weedkiller.

Not native (or local) but feverfew, nigella, Welsh poppies. snapdragons, hollyhocks and herbs all do well on this London clay. Have a look in nearby, neglected gardens to see what survives well in your area.

Whitewavemark2

My son has planted a wildflower meadow which he said has been very successful except that it was wonderful for about 3 weeks and is now just a lot of dead stuff. So he had to re-think for next year.

I saw what he meant by that, as we were there on Saturday and he took us to have a look at it and it is indeed just what looks like a huge weedy patch. He does have an another area nearer the house with lots of grasses and flowers - I forgot to ask if he has yellow rattle in it but I think so as I can remember him talking about it.

WWM2 that reflects an article I read by Alan Titchmarsh opposed to wilding gardens. He said it only really lasts for about 3 weeks so although it’s beneficial to bees, insects etc it’s better to plan your garden with year round insect attracting plants.

I had the seed bombs. Four different mixes in a gift box. None of the seeds came up.

I was wondering whether it would be better to plant individual species e.g. cornflowers, ox eye daisies, California poppies etc - as Callistemon said.

Someone gave me some seed bombs but I think they're quite expensive.

Poppies like churned up soil - ploughed fields, so a garden bed preferably.

Cornflowers, viper's bugloss, oxe-eye daisy, dog violets all grew in our poor soil lawn but then it got taken over by ragwort from a neighbouring garden so I'm moving it to a different area, hoping to grow red poppies, cornflowers, daisies.

I think if you want something that will give a long succession of flowers you have to plan it quite carefully, otherwise you'll get a lovely short lived flush and then 'dead stuff''. Wild flowers aren't bred for long flowering seasons. So you have to think about what flowers in which season. Or put up with the dead stuff after a few glorious weeks.

And you have to think about their soil needs. I have, for example, harebells growing on some very poor clayey oil on a track to a field, but they'd never flourish in the garden. They don't much like competition, either.

My son has planted a wildflower meadow which he said has been very successful except that it was wonderful for about 3 weeks and is now just a lot of dead stuff. So he had to re-think for next year.

I saw what he meant by that, as we were there on Saturday and he took us to have a look at it and it is indeed just what looks like a huge weedy patch. He does have an another area nearer the house with lots of grasses and flowers - I forgot to ask if he has yellow rattle in it but I think so as I can remember him talking about it.

Advice from Gardeners World magazine

www.gardenersworld.com/plants/three-ways-of-planting-wildflowers/

I have tried a few times with zero success, most disheartening

I've never had to but a wild flower mix because our land grows them without any help, but I do understand that wildflowers need poor soil. Ordinary garden soil might be too rich for them. Though I have to say that ox eye daisies don't seem to mind my garden soil at all! Nor do primroses, cowslips and fritillaries... I don't think field poppies would be over fussy, either.

I think you'll have to look at the flowers available in wild flower mixes to see if they are what you are looking for and if you can give them the right soil conditions.

I also understand that those lovely wildflower verges and roundabouts take some maintenance otherwise the more 'vigorous' varieties take over.

I shall watch this with interest as I’ve decided to do that to a couple of large pots next year.

I buy it from Poundland, B&M, or Home Bargains, very cheap and it has always been successful.