Wildflowers in your garden to add a splash of informal colour

 
We would all like to encourage beneficial insects into our garden and one of the easiest ways we can do this is to grow wildflowers.
Wildflowers are plants that are uncultivated and are found growing in the wild.
Wildflowers can be incorporated into existing borders or sown in large swathes or meadows. Different flowers need different care so this is something you will need to think about when choosing your plants,it can be difficult to choose as there are so many different mixes available.
Wildflowers are available to buy in different ways, you can buy seed mixes, plug plants or as a turf with wildflowers seed already sown into it.
What types of wildflower are there.
Annual Wildflowers
Cornflower
Field poppies
Corn marigold
Annual wildflowers are usually very colourful but they will only last a growing season, they take around 8-12 weeks to flower but they do put on a colourful display, annuals will die back with the first frosts, they do however self seed very freely.  You can harvest seed to sow the following year.
Perennial wildflowers
Ox eye daisy
Red campion
Meadow buttercups
Perennial wildflowers differ from annuals as they will continue growing year after year, they may not be as showy as the annuals but they are reliable, these are best grown from plug plants and a huge selection is available from plants for shady spaces to plants that will grow on the side of a pond.  Cut back perennial wildflowers in Autumn and they will grow again in spring.
Biennials
Foxgloves
Hollyhocks
Forget me nots
There is another group of wildflower plant and these are biennials, these plants flower every other year, producing green leafy growth in one growing season and flowering the following year, they can be raised from seed or plug plants
 
If you’re looking for a fun way to sow seed maybe you could try seedballs, these are clayballs that contain a mix of wildflower seeds, peat free compost and paprika ( to keep the slugs and snails off), you simply scatter these onto prepared soil, keep watered and within a couple of weeks they should start to germinate, these can be great in pots or window boxes if you don’t have a garden and will help to provide food for bees and butterflies.
 

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