Pennington southern garden wildflower seed mixture

On our 2 acres of land, we have a few areas that always look more attractive when they are brightened up by the addition of a colorful blend of wildflowers. Last spring I found the Pennington Seed wildflower mixtures, and I purchased one bag. This spring I bought all three varieties that were in stock, and I want to tell you about the Pennington Seed Daisy Garden Wildflower Seed Mixture.

The Daisy Garden version comes in a bright yellow bag, containing 24 ounces. The bag states that this version of wildflower seeds will produce “A beautiful, long-lasting meadow or border of bright colors”, and that these flowers make an “Excellent choice to plant for cut flowers”. The 24-ounce bag contains 10% seeds and 90% inert matter, and it will cover up to 1000 square feet.

These flowers can get quite tall, the bag says they will grow (on average) 18-24 inches tall. The seeds do best when planted in the spring or late fall, and do the best in full sun to partial shade. Contents include Chinese Aster, Pot Marigold, Bachelor Buttons, Shasta Daisy, Painted Daisy, Chrysanthemum, Marigold, Lance Leaf, Tick Seed, Cosmos Sensation, Sulphur Flower, African Daisy, Indian Blanket, Black Eyed Susan, and Cape Daisy.

Colors are indeed bright and vibrant, including yellow, gold, orange, coral, pink, and white. Since our land was hard and rocky, we first had to purchase a lot of top soil as a base, making sure we had about 3-4″ of soil for the flowers to take seed in. I used my hand spreader to apply the seeds, but since the bag contains 90% inert matter (which looks like very fine sawdust), it is so much easier to spread these seeds even without the use of a spreader.

Once the seeds have been spread, you need to take a rake and work them gently into the soil, the package says 1/8″ – 1/4″ deep, but this is very hard to judge. We just rake the area lightly and this works fine for us. Once the seeds are planted, you then need to water the area regularly because the soil needs to be kept moist in order for the seeds to germinate. The Pennington Seed Company does say that you can also apply a seed start fertilizer to “increase seeding success”, but our flowers are already starting to come up and we have never taken this extra step.

Last years flowers came in very full and thick, and added such a colorful look to our yard. We were able to enjoy our flowers all summer long, and even until the first freeze of the fall. I feel the quality of the Daisy Garden Wildflower Seed Mixture is a great value, and these were very easy to grow.

I have so many questions about this..

Should I expect them to get very tall?

It says it covers up to 500sq ft, the package is 2lbs, for a small area of 4x10... Should I use about half of cup?

The info on this does not give me much info, but it does state that I can plant in fall or spring, I almost want to wait until the spring but I wonder if having them in the ground during the winter helps to make them "better"...?

(pics in comments)

Thank you!

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

how big is your area ....

would you consider doing half this fall.. and half in spring.. an experiment???

if you opt for fall .... i would do this in very late fall.. at least oct for our zone ...you dont want annuals ... popping up this fall.. you want the seed sitting there all winter ... you can do a lot of bed prep in advance ... [i believe annuals are usually included ... so you have some sort of show the first season.. while perennials get going for the following years ]

this is akin to winter sowing.. i wonder if those peeps would have much to say about it ...

i would also be concerned with feeding the vermin.. with some rather expensive exotic seed ...but i dont know what to recommend to deter them ...

ken

ps: who knew there was a meadow and prairie forum .. lol ..

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  gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)

  Usually, the type of flower seeds included in the mix are listed on the packaging. Is this not the case? And they also tend to be pretty regional in nature as not all 'wildflowers' grow equally as well in all areas :-) Generally, some will get tall while others will remain smaller.

  Just an FYI but often these wildflower meadow mixes produce what looks like a patch of colorful weeds. And are often overrun with real weeds!! IMO, they are not at all well suited for smaller planting areas close to a house but look best in open, rural settings where they can be sowed to produce a real meadow-like appearance.

  Roxana *** ZN 5 Indianapolis IN *** thanked gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)

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  ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

  back in the stone age .....gals second paragraph is exactly my experience .... pre WWW .... i had no idea what were weeds ... since most of what was included were unknown to me ... and no real way to ID stuff ...

  
  not to mention the billions of weeds that popped out of a new previously unworked bed soil ...

  
  i also suspected the small scale of my suburban project wasnt suited to the word prairie or meadow ....

  
  ken

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  Roxana *** ZN 5 Indianapolis IN ***

  Original Author

  Ken, I was thinking the same thing, do both seasons and see how they do... also, I was hoping to use some in pots, my sister in law has a couple of huge pots that she planted in the spring with some sort of "wild flower mix" from costco ( out of all places!!! ) and my goodness, those were SO beautiful and yes, you could not see the base of the plants because they were covered with all kinds of greens from the mixed flowers.

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