Anyone here established their own wildflower meadow?

um.. you're right, but parts of my front garden (north-east facing) are really dark and shady in early spring when snowdrops bloom. Thinking about it, I have a few snowdrops in my south-west back garden which is mostly lawn-wannabe-meadow I can't say they thrive there, but they do stay put...

 

True, the Snowdrops bloom early to get the light before the canopy covers them, not sure how they'd do with almost no light. I'd be thinking about some native ferns in that situation.

 

Campanula persicifolia is not the true Bluebell, although the flowers are blue and it often goes by the common name of bellflower or Canterbury bells.
The true native Bluebell is Hyacinthoides non-scripta which grows from bulbs which can be planted in autumn along with other spring flowering bulbs.
Once established, these will spread and seed themselves in a grass area quite freely.

 

Ah! Sorry I always confuse bluebells and bellflowers. Thought they were the same kind of thing also in my native tongue pretty much any flower of this kind is called kolokolchik - little bell folk names, misleading aren't they

 

oh ok, so the bulbs like to be cool whilst dormant? And dryish, yes? Well when my tiny trees have grown a bit I'll certainly stick some snowdrops under them.
Need to look for wildflowers that like dappled shade.. veronicas certainly do, not sure about the rest.

Also this here http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Trifolium repens says clover can't grow in the shade, but I have a huuuge colony of self-seeded clover in the shadiest part of my back garden, between the shed and a cherry tree! That clover gets maybe 3 hours' sun a day, at best. Although who knows, it may never bloom in the shade but it certainly does grow there...

 

Mustn't forget my favourite ;awn 'weed', birds foot trefoil. I'm currently trying to get it to infest my front lawn. It needs full sun as far as I can tell, I've never seen it growing in the shade.

There is also another clover that is often overlooked. Crimson clover. Not to be confused with the much more common Red clover. Crimson clover grows a bit tallerand is the most striking crimson red, but its nowhere near as tough as the more common clovers, and I think its an annual.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cr...oFceP8gOk16SfBw&ved=0CFgQsAQ&biw=1366&bih=643

 

Hi square-holes-digger!

you can't weaken a lawn by cutting it low, I think
only by changing the soil into less fertile or more sandy (less wet)
otherwise you should cut more often and choose some plant who don't mind a cut every month or so (with this wet weather, at least) In dry weather you will have to mow less
just a remark (not a seriuos suggestion): certain kind of builders rubble worked into the meadow makes a good soil for limeloving and dry soil-loving plants and makes the grass grow more sparse too. This way you get a fantastic yellow-blue wildflower meadow (scabious, vipers bugloss, vetch, melilotus, reseda lutea... (plants which grow well on waste grounds)

prunella vulgaris, dovesfoot geranium, creeping buttercup

some bulbs have trouble to get through a dense lawn, I would image snowdrops are one of those. I have good experience with crocus, but they want some sunshine, otherwise they don't open theit flowers.

depends what do you want to use the meadow for. A good wilflower meadow will most likely be at least knee high, mostly higher. There I would go for a much lesser grass ratio.
If you want to walk on it and use it, the meadow needs more cutting which excludes quite a few plants and you can have more grass to make it more like a carpet.

 

My wildflower 'meadow' area yesterday. On a hot June afternoon, sometimes it's lovely to just stop in the shade of the old apple tree and watch the grass seed heads and ox-eye daisies gently waving in the breeze.