Most gardeners plant wildflower seeds in spring. And yes, it’s easy, but not magic. We’ve put together a few simple guidelines to ensure you understand the dos and don’ts of planting wildflowers.

Step 1: Look around! Decide where you want your wildflowers.

A big open field? A strip beside the driveway? Maybe a border at the wood-line in back? Or just a patch near the house for cut flowers and summer color.

Step 2: Choose a mixture that suits your plans.

Mixes for a quick year of color and all-summer blooms.

In this case, you’re not planning a years-long landscape, just a blast of easy-care bloom for this coming summer. Whether you’re planting in spring after frosts, or in fall after a killing frost, you should choose a mixture of all annuals—the flowers that grow and bloom quickly, but die in fall—a one-year deal.  At Eden Brothers, that would be our All Annual Mix and it’s suitable for all regions.

Or you can choose one of these mixes to enjoy a large collection of your favorite flowers this coming summer. They’re all annuals: Crazy for Cosmos, our mix of several cosmos species,  Sunny a great mix of several sunflowers from gold to red, Zin Master if you love all kinds, colors and heights of zinnias, or Top of the Morning, which is all morning glories in various colors, great for hiding a fence or shed.  To see the entire list of annual mixes, click here.

Don’t forget to consider placement. Some of these flowers are short, some tall. And remember, they all come in various quantities, so for example, if it’s sunflowers you love, you can plant an acre or just a patch. Your choice.

Mixes for a permanent meadow.

Say you have an area you’d like to be “natural,” but with color. Maybe a strip along a wood line beside your backyard to reduce mowing, or an open field area you’d like to landscape. It’s easy to mow paths through your meadow after it’s up and growing, and add benches, bird feeders, whatever you like. For a permanent planting, you’ll need a mixture that’s a combination of annuals and perennials. Here’s why.  This is how these mixtures work. Whether you plant in fall after frosts or in spring, during your first growing season, the annuals will bloom like crazy.  The following year and beyond, your annuals may reseed a little, but the big blooms will be from the perennials as they “come back” with more blooms every year. Yes, perennials take two years to bloom. But don’t worry.  You’ll have plenty of color from the annuals while your perennials create their root systems the first year.

Here are our mixtures that work this way: Our best seller is our exclusive Burst of Bloom Mix, which is good anywhere in North America.  All of our regional mixtures are popular (Southeast, Northeast, Midwest, Southwest, CA coastal, etc.). And finally our Partial Shade Mix is good in all regions and is a consistent favorite for obvious reason! Speaking of shade, with wildflowers “shady” means partial shade. There may be some tall trees, or a wood-line with lots of branches up high over the flowers…fine.  But don’t plant in deep shade. And most important, don’t plant under evergreens.  All seeds need some sun to sprout. Our Partial Shade Mix is just that.  This mix of shade-tolerant annuals and perennials will do well without the full blast of wide open full sun, but still the sunnier the better.

Step 3: Prepare to plant.

For complete detailed planting instructions, no matter which mixture you choose, click here to read our planting guide. Preparation of the site is probably the most important part of the project. It’s very easy, but there are a few things you must do for that big bloom you’re thinking about.  

And that’s about it.  If you have more questions, just email us; one of our experienced representatives will be happy to answer them.  We’ve helped hundreds of thousands of wildflower gardeners all over country, and we’re ready to help you. Just email service@edenbrothers.com.

For instructions for planting wildflowers in fall, click here.