How to grow wildflowers in borders, pots or in a meadow. Expert tips from Charlotte Denne of Kent Wildflower Seeds. A good wildflower mix will give you colour for several months. And you can fill a whole border with just one packet of seeds, so it’s super-thrifty. But, although growing wildflowers is easy, there are a few essential tips you need to know.
00:00 This video is about how to grow wildflowers in a pot, border or meadow
00:14 Kent Wildflower Seeds: https://kentwildflowerseeds.co.uk/
00:37 Rewilding video: https://youtu.be/tS64V7ysodA
00:42 Growing your lawn longer video: https://youtu.be/dmf5hCzzJtw
01:06 My three wildflower borders
01:31 What are annuals, biennials and perennials?
02:26 Read the instructions on a packet of seeds!
03:41 Basic tips on growing wildflowers
05:21 Do you have to weed a wildflower border?
07:00 Growing wildflowers in pots
09:07 Grow wildflowers from seed in a seed tray to control what comes up when
10:22 Remember to consider foliage when choosing wildflowers
11:00 What compost should you use to grow wildflowers in pots
11:45 Sarah and Dan Kennedy’s wildflower meadow
12:32 Different ways of creating a wildflower meadow
13:43 Why you can’t just throw wildflower seeds into lawns or grass
14:38 Do you treat a small mini-meadow in the same way as a large field?
18:12 Video on Wildlife Friendly Garden tips: https://youtu.be/hvnmRx_DVoA
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37 Comments
I'm always excited to see a new video uploaded 😸
Hi Alexandra. There is also the possibility that, either the annual/biennial flowers will self-seed, or you might consider harvesting the seed from them yourself to sow next year.
Thank you, Alexandra, for providing the most valuable information about growing wildflowers. We live in Western Pennsylvania and are planning to take a relatively small part of our property and establish a wildflower garden. The timing of this video is perfect!
Soil has to be quite poor. Seeds only native and biological, bought per weight you can buy per choice: share with a friend or neighbour to share costs.
I would add, consider also, whether you want to water the plants over the summer. Don't go for borage family in a dry bed if you
don't want to water weekly. Be aware that if you direct sow, slugs may eat all. If adding a wild flower seed mix, choose one without grasses. Be aware too that all seed needs a long wet period (months) for the seed to germinate and grow. Nothing will happen if they get dry. You need to pay attention and water if there no rain.
This is a lovely trend. Thanks for the tips! Like your Kent mix, a local seed supplier, West Coast Seeds, sells a wildflower mix especially for our area. It's great that the availability and selection of native plants is increasing.
The only wildflowers I've been successful at are California poppies. That's because I live in California!
Hey, great video thank you, my wildflower meadows were crushed by the rain, so they re stand back up? I was constantly trying to keep them up, how do I control this?
Looks beautiful
Another trip to Dreamland. I so enjoy your videos. This one especially. I have had such great luck with a wildflower mix I order from Nature Made for my area. I planted mine in a child's wagon the plastic Radio Flyer. I used old potting soil from potted plants the year before.
Needless to say I over planted and had to remove some monstrous Cosmos that were talking over. Also another warning! Because I over planted in the wagon container in my hot, humid climate (heat index 112 F today) I am watering twice a day without fail unless we get a good soaking rain. Thanks for the smiles. See you soon.
Adorable little girls who loves her mom❤️! Thank you, Alexandra, I love all your videos!!
Great video Alexandra.
It was interesting to hear you have a problem with bind weed over there, I have been fighting to no avail bindweed in my lawn and gardens for years here in Colorado
Beautiful blouse to wear with the Kent wildflowers! I want to see if I can find these to order. I want the exact flowers you have! Stunning colors ❤
This was a veritable mine of information! I’ve tried numerous times to create a mini meadow…all I get is ox eye daisies….so then I just tried to achieve a small wildflower patch…nothing germinated at all! I was assuming it’s my heavy clay soil but now I’m thinking I’m not getting the seed depth right – I’m going too deep or too shallow, I suspect, and I’m not doing good enough prep.
The carefree scattering with wild abandon approach definitely does not work! 🥴
Great video, I love how "controlled" wildflowers look in combination with regular gardens. Thank you so much for all the information and tips!
❤
Great video, great info!
You mentioned ground elder. My garden is riddled with it.
So sweet to include the little girl. Charlotte seems like such a gentle mother
Hi 👋
Excellent! There could be a whole vlog on maintaining a wildflower meadow once it is established. You will get nasty invasives, unequal distribution of species, and, frankly,lots of flopping over. All issues need to be addressed. I would love to hear what the experts say.
I cannot believe that you made this video, just as I need it. Thank you!
Love the wire borders around your plant beds. Where did you get them please?
Great show! Good to see more folks taking on the task of helping their local ecosystem.
Thank you.
Good morning Alexander, such a pleasant video. Even though you acknowledge that you made mistakes in the raised beds, the flowers still look stunning. So pretty. Perhaps you could sow some other seeds to fill the space, we all live and learn! Just loved the inclusion of the little girl, such a sweet person and well behaved. It was a lovely video, I feel we need space to show off the gorgeous wild flowers, but then again, you proved the difference in the raised beds, depends what the gardener wishes to exhibit. Thank you for the lovely talk, and the good advice in planting the wild flower seeds, not as straight forward as we would like to think, but so rewarding. Many blessings, take care, and enjoy. Kind regards.
I love the combination of wild in the border. That's exactly what I am doing then expanding the concept of hardy perennials into the wild 1/2. I use my cottage garden half as a testing garden and after 5 years I now have some perennials naturalizing in the wild sectors. I'm so excited because I love the prospect of seeing it expand. I think it is so cool how people are getting on board and incorporating native plants. 👍. I'll send you some pics via Instagram if you like since I can't attach it here.
I like this idea .I have a path to my bridge in woodland garden that always has problems with weeds.Ill weed it fully and plant seed of wild flowers bought here in greenmarket .So lots of work to prepare ground .Plant up and look lovely like yours
That is a prickly sow thistle maybe (Sonchus?) — I think it depends on the setting, if you want a more formal look, I'd pull them but if you're in a more natural setting it might be appropriate to leave some, maybe cull a few if there are too many. I'm not sure how beneficial that one is? I know Cirsium vulgare and knapweeds are supposed to be very good butterfly nectar sources but maybe Joel Ashton could tell you how sow thistle ranks for wildlife.
7:15 My heart just melted….
Very helpful video! It answered all of my questions and was inspiring ❤ I never considered growing wild flowers in pots. We have small ground bees that love hedge mustard but my husband fears it will take over, so a set of pots may be a perfect compromise. Thank you!
Those wildflowers are so beautiful 🌸🌱🌼🌝👍
Such great information! Thank you, Alexandra.
Subscribed for your accent. Love it !!
Hello Alexandra, new subscriber here. I have been binge watching your videos and thoroughly enjoyed them! I really like the diversity in your videos and appreciate the high level of practical applicability.
I am interested in the more naturalistic gardens. I just got acquainted with Jo McKerr who transformed a former brownfield site in Somerset into a stunning ecological garden. Gardens Illustrated published an article about it a few weeks ago.
Such a great video thank you to all of you
Great country mom is brilliant gardener & conveyer!