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Reduced Landscape Maintenance
and Water-Thrifty Beauty
with Wildflowers
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Reduced Landscape Maintenance and Water-Thrifty Beauty with Wildflowers | |||
© 1997, 1998
Streamline Publications With the increasing use of
wildflowers as part of commercial and residential landscaping an amusing term
has developed—wildflower maintenance. If they are wild what maintenance
could they need? When wildflowers are used in a planned
landscape, maintenance considerations become important to the way these bloomers
fit into the overall plan. Whether they are to be used in previously unmanaged
areas, such as roadsides or as borders on undeveloped land, their use requires
understanding of what conditions are needed to encourage their propagation."Seeding an area already
established with grasses, weeds and forbs with ten or fifteen pounds of
wildflower seed is like sending a high school football team against the Los
Angeles Rams," said Paul Albright, of Albright Seed Company
and consulting authority on wildflowers. "In an undisturbed, natural
grassland there is probably 180 pounds of annual seeds per acre in the top two
inches of soil. And these are the seeds of well-established forbs, grasses and
weeds. Giving wildflowers any chance for survival against this competition takes
careful planning and timing." |
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Two-Pronged Attack
Albright described the necessity to
control the grasses before planting wildflowers. "The competition from native
grasses has to be reduced as much as possible. There is no way to eliminate all
the different plant types that will fight your efforts to grow wildflowers. The
best you can hope for is a managed kill of germinated seeds. Winter weeds and
grasses can be germinated with irrigation in the fall. If the growth periods of
summer and winter grasses can be made to overlap, both can be killed
simultaneously with selective herbicides." "It is more likely that only the
winter grasses can be killed this way. A second kill of the summer grasses using
the same technique of early germination in spring may also be necessary.
Wildflowers seeded in late summer will then have a better chance to germinate
and emerge in the spring. "It is important to remember that
only a small percentage of the total native seeds will germinate at a given time
and the potential for growth is still there. So it is a matter of holding off
the grasses and weeds until the wldflowers can become established. After the
first successful year, the wildflowers will add their own seeds to the mix at a
much greater poundage per acre than the ten or fifteen pounds that were in the
original planting."
Let Dormant Seeds Sleep
Wildflowers must be planted shallowly
but with good soil contact. Tilling the soil should be avoided for it will
simply turn up much of the dormant grass and weed seed which will then be likely
to germinate and compete with the wildflowers. The soil surface needs only to be
roughened and the wildflower seed tamped in to make contact with soil.
Careful Watering
For the first three weeks after
seeding, the soil surface must be kept moist to encourage germination. Once the
sprouts show at the surface, watering should be reduced gradually over the
second three-week period. In the third three-week period water deeply once a
week. At the end of nine weeks the
wildflowers should be well established and won't need more than occasional
watering during the dry season. Extra water will prolong their blooming.
At season's end, mowing will scatter
the seeds. The following year your wildflowers should be able to make their own
way in the world. Late summer is the time to think about
the wildflowers you want next spring. Albright Seed Company can help you
select the perfect mix. With ten wildflower mixes available there are choices
for you. Whether you live in the high desert or a cool coastal valley you can
look forward to a spectacular splash of spring color. Go Wild With | |||
Choose from more articles from Albright Seed Company. All our products come with an extra ingredient at no extra cost—30 years' experience. | |||
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