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Is it too late?
Lulu The Lurcher
Posts: 258
in Plants
Is it too late too sow meadow seeds such as oxeye daisies, poppies, cornflowers etc?
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yes, or possibly too early. Seeds naturally drop from those plants from now until September and poppies especially will remain dormant until the right conditions prevail, so you could sow them now and they may come up in the autumn when it cools down and there's some rain. But you will lose a lot of seed in the process to birds, in particular, and if you've bought the seed, rather than them self-sowing from this year's plants, it's a waste of money to sow in mid summer when nothing much will germinate.
I'd wait until late September or early October now, whenever you get some consistent rainfall and before the ground gets cold again. That is actually a better time to sow than the spring as a rule, in terms of successful germination. But it takes until next year to see the flowers.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Thanks, I thought that would probably be the case. I did sow a load in the spring but absolutely nothing came of it. I think it was a combination of lurchers and pigeons
I've never grown Lurchers and Pidgeons did you start them off in a seed tray?
got quite a few of both here
. I think the pigeons are probably self sown but the lurchers we got as quite large specimens.
You could try sowing some (oxeye daisies, poppies and cornflowers, not lurchers or pigeons) in modules in August/September then plant them out in October. Less likely to be dug up or scratched out if they are a bit bigger. It takes a little longer but certainly with ox-eye daisies, they self seed very happily so a dozen young plants this autumn will make a meadow in a couple of years with a little judicious weeding in the meantime. Depends how big an area you're trying to cover, of course.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
as raisin girl says. Except I think poppies are better direct sown
In the sticks near Peterborough
Thanks everyone. The pigeons seem to have self seeded everywhere... correction helped themselves to seed everywhere and the lurchers just course though the orchard like loons.
I think ill try them all in seed trays then plant out when a bit more viable. I've also got a meadow mix, ragged robin and harebell seeds so ill give them all ago in the autumn, maybe sown into a raised bed and covered with netting.