Wild Flowers

[huntingmaxima]

Is it to late to plant my wild flower seeds?

[skunk-ape]

If you have seeds from flowers native to the area, it is not too late to plant them. In fact, I recommend seeding now until the snow flies. Frost or dormant seeding is the best for native wildflowers because many of them need to go through periods of freezing and thawing in order to germinate. Good luck!

[solbes]

Follow up question. I'm planning on planting an all-native Midwest mix in the spring. We have an area on the top of our property that gets a lot of sun, is well drained, and already contains some wildflowers + grasses + weeds.

I want to try and replant maybe 1/3 of it to see if we can get more variety. Could this also be done in the spring? Process I've heard so far is: tilling down an inch, letting the new weeds sprout for 2 weeks, Roundup application, and then sowing the wild flower seed after a week or two of RU application.

Do you think they'd germinate if we sow the native mix in mid to late May (north central MN)? Too late for fall sowing since we've packed up for the year and I'd like to get started in the spring.

[solbes]

After reading that I want to clarify we will just apply Roundup once and then wait 1-2 weeks before sowing new seeds.

[Steve Foss]

solbes, your spring planting plan is sound. Should be fine, as long as you keep those new seeds wet enough, as per what the directions say. Some WF mixes say to keep things a bit dier. Just depends on the mix.

Maxima, if you plant your seeds now the migrating sparrows and juncos will get a big share of them. You might wait until even later, not worrying if you scatter them over a few inches of snow, even. The melt in spring will bring them right down to the ground and, while the migrating birds will take some seed in spring, it's a lot less than if you give them the chance to eat it in the spring AND the fall.

[huntingmaxima]

Thanks alot for yur help, guys.