# Growing Wildflowers, how?



## jrshay (Jul 9, 2012)

Matt

Have you tried a soil sample?


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## roberto487 (Sep 22, 2012)

I have a nice mix of wild flower patch but i mostly see native bees, beetles and wasps on them. Some (3 or 4) honeybees early morning. I keep adding honeybee friendly plants to my landscape but it mostly attracks other types of bees. I didnt know wasps were pollinator, i see them all over my garden


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## Oldbee (Sep 25, 2006)

First, I will say that I haven't actually tried this myself; planting and growing a large area of wildflowers and/or prairie plants for bees. What I have read is that it takes some planning/preparation so that the flowers can overcome the competition (at least in beginning) from the (often non-native) weeds and grasses for a large area. It is too bad three years ago   you didn't till the land and either apply herbicide or intermittently cultivate during the summer growing period to kill off most of the weeds/grasses, then plant in the spring of the next year. Also, many wildflowers need a period of cold weather dormancy/stratification for germination, so planting in late fall is perhaps necessary to. There must be some wildflower nurseries in IL. that could give advice about this. There are some that provide this service for commercial landscaping.
>> 
http://www.prairienursery.com/store/native-landscape-consulting-ezp-2.html >>"Take No Prisoners" (when it comes to weeds)  from a PDF you can find here, >> 
http://www.prairienursery.com/store/images/SitePreparationandPrairieSeedingMethods(1).pdf

And >> http://www.prairienursery.com/store/articles-ezp-83.html

Another site; mght be useful: >> http://www.ill-inps.org/index.php/about-us



Note: From my readings, if I were to do this on a small scale, I would till first in spring and then cover the area with black plastic, (be patient  the first year) to kill the grasses/weeds; even then some weed seeds can lie dormant in soil and germinate the next year. I would then plant seeds in spring and fall of second year. If this planting was more for honey bees, I would supplement the "wildflower mixes" with seeds of plants that I knew the bees preferred. Some of these seeds, if purchased separately, can be expensive but you only need 1/4 to 1/2 oz. depending on how large an area for planting of course.


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## imthedude (Jan 28, 2013)

Contact the folks at applewood seed co in Denver. They have honeybee mixes as well as sound advice for planting.


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

Start preparing the planting space early. Till the space every two weeks for a couple months, this will help reduce the grass and weeds. Then plant, and use a light mulch as seed covering. This, in addition to some of the thoughts others have posted.


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## cg3 (Jan 16, 2011)

Maybe try a cover crop such as Buckwheat for a year, then prepare soil as above for wildflowers.


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## MJuric (Jul 12, 2010)

Actually yes, I had the soil tested for the garden earlier this year. Although the area I'm trying to grow the flowers are in a different area and could be considerably different I suppose, but I never even thought to look at these plants preferences.

This area was also used as a field for many years so maybe it is significantly different.

~Matt


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## MJuric (Jul 12, 2010)

*Contact the folks at applewood seed co in Denver.*

They have some really good suggestions on their site on how to get the plants started. 

Thanks

~Matt


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## arrowwood (Apr 11, 2012)

there's a good step by step here,
they also sell real prairie wildflower seed, not the typical "wildflower" junk
http://nativeconnections.net/blog/?page_id=89


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