Best Wildflower Seed Company

Hi,

I was wondering what everyones opinion was on Wildflower Seed Mixes that contain both annuals and perennials and what your luck has been with them??

I saw that American Meadows has a nice selection of mixes, I checked them out on the watch dog as well. Has anyone had any exerience with them .... do you know of any other companies that offer the same sort of mixes???

I have a nasty HUGE sloping hill that runs down to the lake. Currently it is covered with knotweed and other unpleasant weeds. We have been working on trying to clear it out and I would love to plant a mix like this until I can figure out what to do with the area in the next few years. I know I shouldn't plant them in the fall because of the grade of the hill .... although I would love to for an early start next year!!

Thanks!!

My biggest problem with trying to grow those wildflower seed packs is that the birds tend to eat most of the seeds before they have a chance to germinate. And I think the hill is going to be problematic anytime if you're watering or getting rain--it's going to tend to wash the seeds downhill. I think you could protect a little from the birds by putting down straw like you would if you planted grass seed, I'm not sure if the straw would help protect the seeds from washing down the hill though.

Actually maybe the straw might work to help with the birds. :) I think I'm more concerned with it washing down the hill, but it might help a little with that as well ... good idea!!!

I got one of those big bags of wildflower seed mixed with mulch at Walmart last spring. You just sprinkle it on the ground. For the first time, I got seedlings instead of feeding the birds.

I don't know where you could find this mulch if you wanted to buy the seeds separately. It looks like shredded stiff threads. Maybe at Lowes in the grass seed section?

I saw that at Walmart as well!!! Just wasn't sure of the seed quality. :) But maybe I could find that mulch material at one of the garden centers around here ... great idea!!!

If I were you I would not plant anything with these so-called wildflower seed mixes. Often they contain things that are not wildflowers, like Daucus carota, for one thing. For another, a wildflower meadow requires a lot of work - regularly mowing, for instance, at an appropriate height. Third, if you cut down all those weeds and whatnot you have now and plow it up, what's going to stop the hill from eroding? Nothing. You clog up the water below it for no reason and ruin the looks of your hill.

How about choosing selectively some native shrugs and starting them from seeds? This is reasonable in price and will have much better result in the long run. Yes, it will take a couple years to get the seedlings at a height where they can be planted out, but the end result will be very much worth it. You can get good quality, cheap seeds for native plants from Prairie Moon Nursery. In fact, you can even get the bare-root plants themselves from them. and if you decide in the end you want something else there, you will have lots of material to start more native shrubs to put elsewhere on your property or trade.

I've been working on delineating my property lines with a hedge, and its foundation is native shrubs that I am growing from seed. It's very satisfying. They are beautiful, tough as nails, and you give something back to the wildlife. And no Daucus carota.

There was no Queen Anne's Lace or any other weed seeds in the stuff I got at WalMart. I got a terrific germination rate. In fact, next time I will plant it at about twice the coverage rate recommended on the bag because the flowers were a bit crowded. I certainly got a lot of flowers. It lists on the back of the bag what seeds are in there.

Native American Seeds is an excellent company for those located in Tx, Ok, or La.

Paracelus, I will definitely consider the native shrubs as an option!!

Thank you all for your advice, keep it coming!!!