Bulbs and Wild Flowers

These flowers are NOT found in wildflower meadows! They generally prefer well drained soil and no grass. They’re not perennials, so don’t come back year after year unless you allow them to set seed and then agitate the soil with a hoe or similar. Nor do they flower for long;  Cornfield annuals can give a cheerful splash of bright primary colours to wasteland or verge. They’re not as helpful ecologically as perennial meadow species as they don’t persist and only flower briefly. I add some of our meadow mixes as a “nurse” for some added colour and to suppress weeds. ( Update: since the open day we have had quite a few cornflowers pop up, as well as corn marigolds, and more poppies).

Typical cornfield annuals:

Corncockle Agrostema githago (poisonous if eaten and increasingly rare in the wild)

Corn Chamomile Anthemis arvensis

Cornflower Centaurea cyanus

Corn Marigold Chrysanthemum segetum

Scentless Chamomile Matricaria perforata

Field Forget-me-not Myosotis arvensis

Corn Poppy Papaver rhoeas

Perennial wild flower species are often slow to establish.

It is very important that the ground is prepared thoroughly. Once established both the grasses and wild flowers will be easy to maintain but they can take some time to get started. In particular you need to get rid of any invasive weeds like couch grass, docks, nettles and elder. It is, in some cases, worth looking at the ground nearby where you are sowing the seed. For example, if you plant next to a field full of docks then they are going to reseed in your meadow. You can dig the site over with a fork by hand, removing all the weeds but that was not practical for the 50 sqm area we are using so we settled for harrowing it at the end of the  summer.

 You can over the area with black plastic for a while, or better use cardboard covered with top soil, and plant into the topsoil and let the cardboard rot away. Now we know where the clover and ajuga are growing we will select areas to plant this way in the autumn.

 We harrowed the ground but that alone is not enough  to remove couch/rye grass. Both of which will choke out most annuals and perennials. For larger areas you may need to spray with a herbicide and then use a rotavator to turn the soil over (if you have the time then  it can pay to go through this process twice – but we did not want to use weedkiller). Remove what is there and wait to see what starts to establish, then remove that before planting the seed. That worked O.K. for small test areas. but we wanted to retain  existing wild flowers .

 Before sowing or planting, the soil should be broken up and be relatively free-draining. It can then be raked over to a firm and fine tilth, as you would for a lawn.

Even on large areas broadcasting will work better than drilling. After sowing, the ground should ideally be consolidated in some way such as by rolling , or by walking all over it.

I experimented with direct sowing of seed onto bare soil, onto harrowed soil, and also mixed with sand, and a separate sowing mixed with spent top soil,  and also separate sowings in each month March to May. Don’t overdo this because most wild flows need light to germinate.

Different people advocate different seeding coverage from 2g /sqm to 20g/sqm.  It’s still only a small amount of seed per square metre and some seeds are like dust so I mix it in with some sand or earth first to increase the volume, to help spread it more evenly and visibility of what is covered. Broadcast the seed. or if you are establishing a larger area a hand operated lawn fertilizer spreader and avoid windy days!

Many commercial mixes are mixed with bran and grasses and are often from China – specialist U.K. farms cost more but you have more choice for native species and more reliable quality, with mixes available for different types of  meadows and soil. 

The best times for sowing on the flower, generally  March through to May or in the autumn (July through to early October). However, I found that later sowing i.e. early June produced better results – we did have a very wet March- April and a very dry May. Some seeds need cold to germinate. If there is a grass in the bed of 50% or more then seeds are better planted in the autumn when the soil is still warm and the grass has stopped growing.

Both grasses and wild flowers will take some time to get established. You will start to see the real benefit in the second year rather than the first year of establishment even for the annuals. Do not panic if the meadow is disappointing in its first summer -many expert say it takes 5 years.

Guidelines are difficult as each year can be very different. In the first year the meadow may need cutting through the autumn and winter and into the early spring to keep it below 6 inches. Do not cut after mid-March especially if you have cowslips or fritillaries. After mid March leave it and wait until all the summer flowers are over (normally in the early autumn).

Some species will flower twice and you may need to give it a second cut in the late autumn. It should never be cut too short (the blades should be set at about 4” if possible). This level will prevent the broad–leaved plants from being destroyed whilst allowing light and air. You need to remove the grass cuttings but it is worth leaving them for a few days to wilt, so making it less weight to move. If left on the ground and not removed at all they may well kill some of the broad–leaved plants. After the first year in following years the meadow can safely be cut down to 1 to 2 inches in height in the autumn.

There often seems to be conflicting advice abo whether there should be grass in the mix, whether the wild flowers need grass for support and so on. Some flowers like fritillaria and cowslips seem very happy in long grass as does wild scabious, betony, poppies, feverfew etc – but they may struggle to germinate and push their way through so they need to start growing while the grass is short  and then the grass can grow up around .

Yellow rattle Rhinanthus minor is an annual with short lived seed… It therefore needs a chance to set seed each year. Cutting or grazing too heavily between April and Mid July will eliminate yellow rattle by preventing it seeding and should be avoided. Traditional meadow management is based around an early August hay cut and provides Yellow rattle with the best opportunity to set seed. For the seed to scatter during the process of haymaking, autumn grazing or mowing or harrowing is also important to keep open the grass sward. This provides new sites for the Yellow rattle to establish in following years.  

Yellow rattle populations tend to fluctuate in meadows from year to year. This is a reflection of the balance of health of the Yellow rattle plants and  their host plants in any one patch. Yellow rattle establishment is rather unpredictable. Results will vary from one year to another and from one part of a site to another. The reasons for this are not always apparent. An open sward structure seems to be the most important. It also prefers acid soil.

Yellow rattle seed must be sown in autumn as it needs to be chilled through the winter to trigger it’s germination the following spring  I left it too late and despite frosts it failed to appear. The most suitable sites for Yellow rattle is grassland of low to medium fertility, and with a balanced sward which is not dominated by coarse vigorous grasses. Prepare for sowing by cutting the grass very short (1 inch) or by grazing hard and open up sites for germination, by harrowing, raking or lightly disking. Aim to create  <50% bare soil. Broadcast the seed on to the prepared surface.

This is my key step for this autumn, to get the rattle established. It’s so important that I will also grow some in plugs/pots as a contingency.

It was said to herald the harvest when it set seed. It’s an attractive annual, quick to appear through existing sward in early spring. Yellow Rattle is hemi-parasitic, like Eyebright – a distant relation – and Mistletoe. This mean that is photosynthesises, but also needs nutrients from a host plant. Rhinanthus significantly reduces the vigor of some other plants, including – most helpfully – grasses. Not all grasses though – the more vigorous, coarser species will overwhelm it. If you have lots of the thug in chief – perennial rye grass – in an area where you want to have Rattle, I’m afraid it’s a lost cause. Some plants, like plantains and Ox-eye daisy, have developed their own strategies to resist Yellow Rattle, and do well in swards with large Rhinanthus populations.

Once common but disliked by farmers – unsurprisingly – Yellow rattle is an attractive plant with a yellow snapdragon type of flower which pollinators find helpful too, particularly bumblebees and butterflies. It’s said to represent a cockscomb, hence another of its synonyms.