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If anyone is interested, Morrisons has a current selection of perennial wildflowers (EDIT Wildlife Garden perennials){not plugs) at £1 each. I've just bought a white Malva (Mallow) My local store seems to have plants in better condition than those elsewhere in the locality, perhaps because it has a staff member who makes bouquets as well.
I'm sorting out my tiny wildflower bed this year after sowing a wildflower seed pack last year. I've put in a some cowslips from elsewhere in the garden and a couple of lungworts for the early bees. I've taken out a lot of the yellow ox-eye daisy which dominated later in the season. Some of the annuals have self sown and I'm watching to make sure it isn't as crowded this year. I'll post some photos as it matures and starts blooming.
One plant I won't be including is the snakes head fritillary! I have a swath of them in the herbaceous area and have to weed them out of the rock garden. The swathe is well used by bees just now and fills the area while the herbaceous plants are developing. I'll get some photos tomorrow when the sun might reappear. I won't put them in the raised bed as I designed it to be well drained for carrots and they prefer wetter ground.
Hi GMM, thanks for that info, will have to look in my M shop now! Have sown some trays of annuals which I purchased from local nature reserve & pleased to have Cowslip & BF Trefoil showing already with other varieties to follow (hopefully) ... Experiment for this year, sowed them thinly in recycled plastic food trays & will use an old fish slice to take out & place on prepared soil so as to get them in clumps (if you see what I mean) ... also have received my pack of free seeds from Countryfile to participate in Kew Gardens experiment & will grow those in large pots! Look forward to seeing your pics!
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Thanks, Wendy. BUT I went back today to realise that they had wildlife not wildflower perennials! Not that they aren't good value at half price, but not what I posted. I know all our 'cultivated' plants come from wildflower stock but bee friendly is not the same as wild!
Hadn't been there yet GMM so thanks for info ... bee friendly is good though, can't have too many of them!
Nickys Nursery Mail Order Seeds - GardenWeb Europe
www.uk.gardenweb.com/directory/nnmos/
... herbs, wild flower species and wildflower mixtures, tree, shrub and grass seed. Vegetable seed including Organic, Oriental and Baby veg seeds. ... Nickys Nursery ... Broadstairs Kent ... Web Page URL: www.nickys-nursery.co.uk/seeds ...
I have this nursery a few miles from me which I shall be checking out, hopefully this weekend!
Edit: just checked website for perennial wildflower seeds - seem to have quite a range at reasonable prices!
Thanks, Wendy; I'll follow the link.
I've taken a couple of (not very good) photos today although some fritillaries have gone over during the last two rainy days. The stems get taller as they lose their petals and I pull them out to stop them setting seed. If you have a damp patch, they naturalise VERY quickly.
The shrubs are a Forsythia hedge which has just lost the blossom and a Berberis Helman's Pillar, yet to bloom.
There are a few red and purple tulips as well but they don't do that well on this heavy wet clay soil so I haven't put in any more.
Next to this swathe is a Daphne odora in blossom although the effect is diminished by the yellowing of some of evergreen leaves. This dark-leaved variety is a visual stop to the end of the herbaceous area above my rock garden.
Lovely! I'm in the process of checking out if the lawn was once a Victorian lawn, and slowing adding a wildflower 'meadow'. I'll mix hat's there already with the packs of seeds I've been given. I need to figure out how to do this without the birds eating all the seeds.
Have you got any horticultural fleece, Karin? Or insect netting? The birds don't eat the seeds if they've germinated so they wouldn't need to be covered for long. Could you grow them on the windowsill indoors? Sprinkling a pinch in yoghurt pots of soil or compost with a hole in the bottom for drainage would do but it is more labour intensive to have to plant seedlings.
Love your pics GMM, don't have anything to post at present! Bought a plant for a pound at my local nature reserve yesterday called Centaurea 'John Coutts' which was new to me but looked suitably 'wild' with five flower spikes developing & was pleased to find out from Google that it is a perennial Cornflower ... another for the Bees & Butterflies!!