Gardening Plants & Flowers Flowers

Designing a Dreamy Wildflower Garden You Can Maintain

There's more to planning than just throwing down seeds

Wildflowers with different colors and varieties in garden

The Spruce / Heidi Kolsky

If you are considering designing a low-maintenance wildflower garden, learning about which species are easy to grow can help you get started. Planning and starting a wildflower garden requires more than simply scattering some seeds. If you're going to grow a wildflower garden from scratch, you'll want to start with low-maintenance choices. Here are some of the best easy-growing wildflowers to grow in the spring:

  • Aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium)
  • Blanket flower (Gaillardia aristata)
  • Wild blue flax (Linum perenne var. lewisii)
  • Candytuft (Iberis umbellata)
  • Eastern red columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)
  • Coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata)
  • Maximilian sunflower (Helianthus maximiliani)
  • Blazing star (Liatris spicata)
  • Mexican hat (Ratibida columnifera)
  • Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia spp.)
Cottage garden designed with free-form heirloom varieties

The Spruce / Evgeniya Vlasova

What Makes a Wildflower Garden Low-Maintenance?

Wildflowers are species of flowers that have shown themselves to be hardy and self-reproducing, with little attention from the gardener. Although they will grow wild on their own, they are not necessarily native plants. Wildflower gardens are considered a low-cost alternative to high-maintenance gardening. Many wildflowers prefer poor soil and neglect, making them ideal for tough-to-maintain areas of your property.

Wildflower with pink petals and buds on thin stems in front of garden closeup

The Spruce / Heidi Kolsky

Plant Suggestions

A bonus of a wildflower garden is the wildlife it attracts, including butterflies, hummingbirds, and beneficial insects. Here are specific wildflower choices:

To Attract Butterflies

  • Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)
  • Cleome (cleome hasslerana)
  • Cornflower (Centaurea cyanus)
  • Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
  • Zinnia (Zinnia elegans)
  • Golden Alexander (Zizia aurea)

To Feed Hummingbirds

  • Cleome (Cleome hasslerana)
  • Garden Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris)
  • Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus)
  • Zinnia (Zinnia elegans)

To Lure Beneficial Insects

  • Bishop's Weed (Ammi majus): Minute pirate bugs, big-eyed bugs, assassin bugs, and lacewings
  • Globe Candytuft (Iberis umbellata): Syrphid flies
  • White Dutch Clover (Trifolium repens): Parasitic wasps of aphids, scales, and whitefiles
  • Yarrow (Achillea millefolium): Ladybugs
  • Fennel and dill: Braconid and sand wasps, syrphid, and tachinid flies
  • American vervain, blue vervain (Verbena hastata): Bees
  • Aromatic aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium): Bees
  • Joe-Pye weed (Eupatorium fistulosum): Bees
  • Missouri ironweed (Vernonia missurica): Bees
Curved garden layout with pink, white and orange flowers to attract hummingbirds

The Spruce / Colleen & Shannon Graham

How Much Sun Wildflower Gardens Need

Most types of wildflowers need full sun, which is about six or more hours of sun a day. If you're planning a wildflower garden in a spot that is shady, look for a shady woodland mix of wildflowers. Some wildflowers that tolerate some shade include:

Wildflower garden with small colorful flowers scattered in field

The Spruce / Evgeniya Vlasova

Preparing for a Wildflower Garden

Even a wild look requires some planning and effort. The good news is that most of the effort is in getting it started. Here's what to do:

  • Chose an ideal site. You should find one with full to partial sun. If you want the plants to sustain themselves, they need agreeable conditions.
  • Weed control is paramount. Weeds are a successful wildflower garden's biggest threat. Of course, only you can determine what a weed or wildflower is, but for the sake of simplicity, you should start your garden with a clean palette and remove all existing vegetation. There are two proven methods of doing this—manual weed removal or solarization.
  • Weed or remove sod by hand. If you are starting with a small area or if you are planting where healthy grass is growing, this may be your best option.
  • Solarization is a good way to kill all vegetation, including most seeds. Mow the area to be planted as low as your lawnmower will allow. Water the area well, and cover securely with clear plastic sheeting, leaving it there to bake in the sun for six to eight weeks. This method relies on cooperation from the weather, and you will probably still want to remove the dead vegetation before reseeding.
  • Till the soil shallowly. Aim for a depth of about 3 inches once the existing vegetation is removed. You don't want to uncover and encourage more weeds.
  • Rake and level the soil. Leave the grooves left from raking to help hold the seeds and give them contact with the soil.
Wildflowers with red, orange and pink petals in garden

The Spruce / Heidi Kolsky

Planting a Wildflower Garden

  • Purchase plants or individual plant seeds. While wildflower seed mixes are cheap and easy to find, your best success will come if you purchase either individual plant seeds or better still, plants.
  • Prepare your space. If you prefer to go with a packaged seed mix, it will tell you how large an area it covers. In general, use 4 pounds of seed per acre or 4 ounces per 2,500 square feet.
  • Mix sand with the seed mixture. Most wildflower seeds are very small. Mixing some sand in with the seed mixture will make it easier to spread evenly. Broadcast evenly throughout the area to be planted.
  • Rake lightly. You raked the ground to get ready for seeding. Do it again after spreading the seed.
  • Water the whole area. You need to keep the seeds moist until they are a few inches tall. Lightly mulching with straw, peat, or compost will help retain moisture and keep the birds from eating the meadow. It’s much like starting grass seed.
  • Germination should occur in 10 to 21 days. Your first blooms should reward you five to six weeks later.
Wildflower garden

Jeff Greenberg / Getty Images

Tending to a Wildflower Garden

Can a wildflower garden become established and continue to self-sow, without becoming too invasive? Actually, the perennials won't bloom the first year and if you are hoping to enjoy the garden for years to come, an occasional overseeding will help to maintain the balance of plants. This can be done every couple of years or whenever you notice an imbalance, perhaps due to unfavorable weather conditions.

If you are planting a large area and are going for a meadow look, you should consider including some turf grasses in your mixture to fill in thin spots and discourage weeds. Hardy fescues are a good choice in Northern zones. In warmer climates, Kentucky 31 or tall fescue are preferred. Ryegrass and bluegrass tend to be too competitive with flowers and are not good choices. About 25 pounds of grass seed per acre would do.

Once the plants are established they require very little care. But keep the following in mind:

  • Watering during dry spells will keep things looking their best and won't spoil the plants, making them dependent on your care.
  • Weeding should be minimal at first but weeds will try and invade. As the wildflowers grow dense, minimal weeding will be required.
  • Mowing is a major maintenance chore. In the late fall, after the annuals have gone to seed and the perennials are dormant, the whole area should be mowed down to a height of about 4 to 6 inches. If your area is too large to chop by hand, mow with your lawnmower's highest setting. Mowing ensures that seed heads drop, tidies up the appearance of the garden, and discourages the growth of any woody perennials that might take over.
Flower garden with sunflower and orange and yellow wildflowers

The Spruce / Evgeniya Vlasova

Wildflower Garden Grow Tips

  • Build your beds in the fall before you intend to plant. You won't have to fight all the annual weeds sprouting in the spring, and you won't get impatient and be tempted to skip steps in your preparation.
  • The best time to plant wildflowers is in the spring, to give them a good long season to get established and set seed. If you are starting later in the summer, be sure you have at least eight to 10 weeks before frost if you want them to self-sow.
  • "Frost seeding" is possible in zones 6 and up. Wait until the ground begins to freeze, and then broadcast the seeds. Or you can put it off until very early spring when the ground is just starting to thaw. The seeds will get adequate moisture from the snow and good contact with the soil through heaving (periods of thawing and refreezing). Of course, this also requires that you prepare the bed the preceding fall.
  • Consider building walkways in your meadow so that you can get out there and enjoy the view.
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  1. Backyard Wildflower Gardens. University of Vermont Extension.