Your meadow is a wonderful big space to have fun with. As it is close to Remembrance Day, I was wondering if the Flanders poppy might be an addition. I know it naturalizes well. I live in British Columbia in a small town with quite a high elevation and around me are alpine meadows with lillies and columbine, asters and geranium and a lovely little orchid that somehow survives cattle grazing. Good luck with your lovely meadow.
Yellow rattle moves about because it's an annual and comes up where the seed landed the previous year. It's parasitic on grass and reduces it quite nicely. What i'd like is something that's parasitic on hemlock.
It is hard to create the traditional meadow look, time and patience are needed. CAP suggests orchids, that would be lovely, I wonder which species might work out there, I'll give it some thought and see what I can get hold of.
Not the poppies though, different sort of meadow, the poppies and cornflowers etc belong to the cornfield, ploughed land. They can't cope with grass.
We were lucky in finding a good mix of grass species here when we arrived. In a dryish year they're magnificent on their own.
Sue10, don't give up. Just keep planting plugs of anything that suits your soil, or maybe grow them on for a season before you plant them. Let them seed and eventually some will take a hold.
We have a small meadow area in our London garden on clay soil. This year we decided to remove the grass as the soil was too rich and wildflower seeds struggled to compete. We have sown hardy annuals and planted perennials and in the Spring will sow the tender annuals. Below is a list of the plants we have chosen for the new meadow.
The glyphosphate suggestion was from the wildflower seed company (we were in the area and went in to see them for some advice). He said that unless we got rid of the grass (we are starting with a grassy field) then we didn't stand a chance of getting anything else to take.
Didn't take their advice - have tried seeding small patches and sowing batches of seed in trays and then planting the slightly larger plants in as plugs, neither of which has been very successful. I will try your suggestion of starting from the edges next spring.
BTW - does anyone know the best time of year to sow yellow rattle seed ?
Sow yellow rattle now or even earlier. It needs the winter cold to germinate and don't mow after about February. Just scatter around, scrape a bit if you like. I agree about sowing things into grass not working well and it's true in a lot of cases. For yellow rattle it's the only thing to do. It's parasitic on grass. I wasn't expecting it to make the dramatic effect that it did. In areas where there's been yellow rattle for a couple of years the grass is much diminished.
For other things I now grow on and plant larger than plugs, at leat a 3 inch pot.
I was surprised at how easily yellow rattle germinated in our grassy meadow and I think I sowed it early Spring, it's also an attractive little plant. The thing I love about having a meadow is the excitement when the flowers appear in Spring from scattering the seed in Autumn, it's brought a whole new dimension to my gardening and its only a small patch but I love it
Things do vary don't they. I had no luck at all with yellow rattle when I sowed it in spring. Then I read that it needed winter cold, sowed in autumn and it's been seeding itself ever since
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Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Your meadow is a wonderful big space to have fun with. As it is close to Remembrance Day, I was wondering if the Flanders poppy might be an addition. I know it naturalizes well. I live in British Columbia in a small town with quite a high elevation and around me are alpine meadows with lillies and columbine, asters and geranium and a lovely little orchid that somehow survives cattle grazing. Good luck with your lovely meadow.
Yellow rattle moves about because it's an annual and comes up where the seed landed the previous year. It's parasitic on grass and reduces it quite nicely. What i'd like is something that's parasitic on hemlock.
It is hard to create the traditional meadow look, time and patience are needed. CAP suggests orchids, that would be lovely, I wonder which species might work out there, I'll give it some thought and see what I can get hold of.
Not the poppies though, different sort of meadow, the poppies and cornflowers etc belong to the cornfield, ploughed land. They can't cope with grass.
We were lucky in finding a good mix of grass species here when we arrived. In a dryish year they're magnificent on their own.
Sue10, don't give up. Just keep planting plugs of anything that suits your soil, or maybe grow them on for a season before you plant them. Let them seed and eventually some will take a hold.
In the sticks near Peterborough
We have a small meadow area in our London garden on clay soil. This year we decided to remove the grass as the soil was too rich and wildflower seeds struggled to compete. We have sown hardy annuals and planted perennials and in the Spring will sow the tender annuals. Below is a list of the plants we have chosen for the new meadow.
Oxeye
Birdsfoot
Lady’s bedstraw
Fleabane
Red Clover
Majoram
Small scabious
Sheepsbit
Wild poppy
Corncockle
Yellow rattle
Coreopsis tinctoria
Red flax
Globe Gilia
Gilia Tricolor
California poppy
California goldfields
Candytuft
Dwarf cornflower
Nigella
Phacelia Tanacetifolia
Linaria
Convolvulus minor
Cowslip
Corn marigold
BULBS
Fritillaria snakeshead
Snowdrops
Alliums
Grape Hyacinth
Narcissus
Anemone
The glyphosphate suggestion was from the wildflower seed company (we were in the area and went in to see them for some advice). He said that unless we got rid of the grass (we are starting with a grassy field) then we didn't stand a chance of getting anything else to take.
Didn't take their advice - have tried seeding small patches and sowing batches of seed in trays and then planting the slightly larger plants in as plugs, neither of which has been very successful. I will try your suggestion of starting from the edges next spring.
BTW - does anyone know the best time of year to sow yellow rattle seed ?
Sow yellow rattle now or even earlier. It needs the winter cold to germinate and don't mow after about February. Just scatter around, scrape a bit if you like. I agree about sowing things into grass not working well and it's true in a lot of cases. For yellow rattle it's the only thing to do. It's parasitic on grass. I wasn't expecting it to make the dramatic effect that it did. In areas where there's been yellow rattle for a couple of years the grass is much diminished.
For other things I now grow on and plant larger than plugs, at leat a 3 inch pot.
In the sticks near Peterborough
Very helpful - many thanks. Best get my rattle seed ordered tonight !!
I was surprised at how easily yellow rattle germinated in our grassy meadow and I think I sowed it early Spring, it's also an attractive little plant. The thing I love about having a meadow is the excitement when the flowers appear in Spring from scattering the seed in Autumn, it's brought a whole new dimension to my gardening and its only a small patch but I love it
Things do vary don't they. I had no luck at all with yellow rattle when I sowed it in spring. Then I read that it needed winter cold, sowed in autumn and it's been seeding itself ever since
In the sticks near Peterborough