Are you wanting to add a splash of colour to your garden? Adding some annual wildflowers is a great way to spruce up your garden without adding lots of extra tasks to your gardening to do list.
Whether you’ve got a full garden waiting to be brought to life with wildflowers or just a corner or flower bed in need of a spruce. In this guide to annual wildflower plants we share everything you need to know.
What are annual wildflowers?
An annual wildflower is a type of plant that completes its full lifecycle in one growing season. Which means it grows from a seed or plant to a flower, seed-sets and then dies all within the same year. It does mean that the flowers won’t flower year after year unless you sow fresh seeds again.
What are the benefits of annual wildflowers?
There are a number of reasons for opting to add annual wildflowers to your garden, including:
- Quick to flower: Most annual wildflowers bloom within 8-10 weeks after sowing in spring - perfect for those looking for a quick flower boost.
- Long flowering season: Annual wildflowers bloom continuously throughout the flowering season until the first frost.
- Easily adaptable and versatile: They are low maintenance once grown and are easy to establish.
- Attract bees, butterflies and other pollinators: Annual wildflowers are great to attract pollinators to your garden.
How to prepare the ground and sow annual wildflower seed?
To prepare the ground for annual wildflowers, we’ve listed the steps below:
Step one: Remove all weeds and debris from the area.
Step two: Loosen the soil to at least 2 inches, to get the ground ready to sow the seeds.
Step three: Water the area well and let it rest for a couple of weeks.
Step four: Rake the soil and remove any additional weeds.
Step five: Finally sow the seed evenly according to the instructions.
Step six: Lightly press the seeds into the soil to maintain good soil and seed contact.
Step seven: Water the seeds inline with rainfall.
Are annual wildflowers hard to maintain?
Annual wildflowers do require some initial care to establish them, however, once established they are generally easy to maintain. Perfect for adding a splash of colour to your garden with relatively minimal effort.
How to get annual wildflowers to return?
Typically, annual wildflowers only grow for one season. However, if you’re looking to get them to return the following year, there are a couple things you can do.
Firstly, let the wildflowers flower and seed-set which typically happens in late summer/autumn.
Once they have seed set, cut them back and then either leave the cuttings down for a couple days for the seeds to fall or scatter the seeds back into the soil. Make sure to press the seeds into the soil and then remove any dead flower castings.
Make sure to remove any weeds that may compete with the wildflowers and keep the soil moist, especially in dry conditions.
Annual Wildflowers from Boston Seeds
At Boston Seeds we have a wide range of different wildflower seeds, many of which contain annuals and perennials, so that you can have blooms in the first year and for years to come. Check out the full range here.
Annual wildflowers also make up our most popular, bright and colourful wildflower seed mix - Cornfield Annuals. Sow in spring or autumn for a summer full of colour.
If you’d like an even wider range of flowering species, including flowers from the UK and around the world, check out our annual wildflowers seed mixtures including the Summer Sunshine seed mix for a lovely, warm sunny mix of yellow wildflowers or the deep or the calming blues of the Cornflower Splash mix. Looking for the widest range of colours and blooms? Then the Universal Bloom is definitely the seed mixture for you.
