Wildflowers

A wildflower is one that has developed naturally over time without human intervention and retains the original characteristics of the plant family. Most wild flowers are beautiful, fragrant and colorful and most of them can grow just about anywhere.

Growing a wild flower meadow in your garden is one option for keeping things really natural and low maintenance, but still very beautiful. This selection of wildflowers are the easiest to grow:

African Daisy (Dimorphotheca aurantiaca)

African Daisy tolerates a wide range of soil types and occupies areas with 500 to 1500 mm annual rainfall. Like all South African wild flowers, this beauty is best grown in well-draining soil, not heavy loam or clay. If conditions are right, the African Daisy plant can provide spectacularly colorful blooms, and it is easily established from wild flower seed. The African daisy flowers are 1 – 1/2 inch wide flowers, which close at night, in the shade, and during cloud cover.

The African daisy colors are in shades of white, orange, yellow and apricot. They are known for attracting butterflies and bees to gardens. Spectacular results can come from directly sowing African daisy seeds directly into prepared areas. African Daisies need full sun and a light dry soil. African Daisy wild flower seed can be sown in spring after frosts. Keep wild flower seed moist until germination Sow the seeds about 4 inches apart in the soil.

Agave (Agave americana)

Agave americana is the native plant that is most familiarly known as the Century Plant, and this selection can grow into an enormous specimen that has thick fleshy, blue-green leaves that surround the center root system that can grow deep into the earth, then send out rhizomes that form new plants at long distances from the mother plant, but the majority of newly forming plants are in a close cluster surrounding the mother plant. This agave is cold hardy to survive to minus 5 degrees F.

The Agave americana plant has a spreading rosette (about 4 m wide) of gray-green leaves up to 2 meters (6 ft.) long; each with a spiny margin and a heavy spike at the tip. Its common name derives from its habit of only occasionally flowering; but when it does; the spike with a cyme of big yellow flowers; may reach up to 8 meters (25 ft.) in height. The plant dies after flowering. The average life-span is around 25 years.

Baby Blue Eyes (Callirhoe involucrata)

Everyone loves this well-named little gem. Its lack of tolerance for heat is not usually a big problem, since it is so short and blooms so early, the plants are finished blooming before the mid-summer heat kills them and ascending taller plants hide them. The sky-blue flowers are a delight in early seeded meadows, blooming while other wildflowers are still in small seedling stage.

The Purple Leaf Bird Cherry ( Prunus padus Colorata)Top of FormBottom of Form

The Purple Leaf Bird Cherry is a pink flowering variety of the native Bird Cherry tree. It is a striking tree with excellent contrasts and changes of colour across the year. The leaf buds and new stems begin as a deep purple, bronzing into a coppery tone as the leaves unfurl and becoming deep green in summer. The flowers appear in May, while the leaves are still fresh, on long flowering strands called racemes. Each delicate flower has pale pink petals around a rose-hip coloured centre. These face out in every direction from their central stalk, appearing all the more vivid because of the rich foliage. The small black fruit are popular with birds. Prunus padus Colorata is a tough, hardy tree that will grow in most well drained soils and with its narrow, upright canopy it is suitable for most gardens. It reach a height of about 10 metre.

Dog violet (Viola riviniana)

The most common violet in the UK, it’s purple flowers resemble those of pansies. It has distinctive heart shaped leaves. Its petals are between 1.4-2.5 cm long. However, unlike most other types of violet, Common Dog-violet has no scent. It can be found in short grazed limestone grasslands, woodlands, edge of riverbanks, and rocky outcrops. It can be found on wasteland and will work in gardens