Growing wild flowers

Ive tried a couple of times to grow wild native flowers from seeds but have had no luck, nothing ever growa at all. What am I doing wrong?

 

Don't know what you are doing Herb but if I were to try, I would dig over a patch, rake level and scatter the seeds just as nature does, course I could be wrong. :rolleyes:

 

I know that a lot of native wildflowers don't take kindly to rich composts, prefering soils lacking in nutrients.

I have tried too - and tend to find that the ones that seed themselves all over the place without my loving touch are the ones I can't get to grow by hand!

Which flowers are you trying? Some have specific requirements.

 

I think you could be right with the autumn WOO - or at least later in the year when the flowers would naturally drop their seeds. I do remember having to put cowslip seeds in the fridge before planting (still came to nothing) - I suppose that recreates winter for them, or something!

 

You should not need a cold period for cowslip or primrose if the seed is fresh. Some of the mixtures sold in shops is rubbish and might originate from abroad.
Try this place. They are quite reasonable and provide good seed from British sources. They also have good advice on how to sow.
http://www.wildseeds.co.uk/

 

I had a lot of poppies the first time I seeded the seeds - the next year the only ones popping up werent the ones in the soil area, they were coming up in cracks in the ground! I think for some it really is the poorer the soil the better.
My mum has allsorts growing out the cracks in her walls, go figure!
I know on gardeners world when he was growing nasterniums he swept the paths for the really poor soil and said they flowered better.
Good luck, i too want a lot of wildflowers, so I think i'll take the advice here and plant later in the year.

 

you shouldnt be having these problems i started a huge wildflower patch on my old veg plot which was very fertile..i scattered my seeds in the early march as sometimes if you scatter them in the autumn they get eaten !!! anyway i also started some foxgloves off in pots and planted them out in the september and the wild flower seeds fill the gaps.. I did use quality wild flower seeds from suffolk herbs and some of them are annuals which self seed and some are perenials..this is my wild flower patch in year two...

 

Wild flowers thrive on impoverished soil and can be choked out by vigorous grasses if you aren't careful. If you add Yellow Rattle seed to your seed mix this will weaken other grasses and allow your flowers to flourish. You can buy this separately or within a flower meadow seed mix.

 

Hello Karen nice to meet you.

I sent for Suttons wild primrose seeds not planted them yet but they will go in my woodland area that I am making.

Its not very big but under trees roudn back garden so thought th ewild primrpose would be nice there.

Last yr I sent for same seeds but they did not germinate but Suttons happily replaced.

 

Sorry to disappoint, but most Primula seed as sold is dead. The best way to get native primroses from seed is to find someone who has them and to beg some seeds. These should be taken when still green (not when they have gone brown) and sown straight away.
If you want a breeding population and you are given permission to dig some up (illegal otherwise) then make sure you get the two different flower types, thrum and pin. One looks to have a pin head in the flower centre, the other has nothing. Primroses are functionally single sexed.

 

So would this have been why they did not germinate last year for me?

 

Almost certainly, at least you know it is not something you have done or not done.