About this box
Nothing is quite as magical as a patch of wildflowers buzzing with life on a warm summer day. Ten individual packets of high-quality seeds — not a generic meadow mix, but separate varieties that put you in control of exactly where each plant goes. Every one is a British wildflower, native or long naturalised here, so this is the real thing: the flowers of our cornfields, hedgerows, verges and coasts.
The cornfield annuals give the first summer's colour: the scarlet Flanders Poppy, electric blue Cornflower and magenta Corncockle. Oxeye Daisies and pink Red Campion bring the hedgerow and meadow, Wild Chicory throws up sky-blue stars on tall stems, and Wild Carrot spreads its lacy white umbels through July. Musk Mallow (Malva 'Snow White') opens clean white saucers all summer, Feverfew makes clouds of tiny daisies, and Tree Mallow (Lavatera arborea), a native of our coasts, grows into a two-metre plant in its second year, covered in purple-pink flowers from June to September.
Three annuals flower the first summer, Wild Carrot and Tree Mallow follow as biennials, and five perennials come back year after year — a long season of nectar for bees, butterflies and hoverflies from a single box.
Meadow Management
To keep your wildflowers returning year after year, let the plants turn to seed heads in late summer rather than cutting them down. Then cut and drop — shear the dead stems and shake them over the soil to release seeds for the following season.
The perfect gift for the eco-conscious gardener — whether they have a window box or a large allotment, these seeds bring colour and wildlife back to their doorstep.
