Annuals or perennials?

American Meadows' co-owner Mike Lizotte gets the same phone calls every year: Customers can't figure out why their flowers didn't bloom the first year they were planted. The answer is simple; they chose perennial flower seeds.

"Perennials typically don't bloom the first year," he says. "Once they bloom the second year, though, they can be spectacular."

Another problem with perennials is they eventually get overrun with unwanted plants like ragweed, curly dock and other undesirable weeds. Lizotte says weeds in annuals, which typically die after the first frost, can be much easier to control because, as their name implies, annuals live for just one growing season.

"After the annuals die, spray the area with a nonselective herbicide and start over," he said.

Plant a wildflower meadow

Turn an empty field into a giant flower bed

If a single flower is a thing of beauty, what do you call 10,000 of them? Planting a wildflower meadow is a great way to liven up an empty field. It's easy and relatively inexpensive. Most importantly, a wildflower meadow will give you pause each time you look at it and offer a steady supply of fresh flowers for your kitchen table.

Thanks to the growing popularity of wildflower gardening, a number of retail seed distributors offer as many as 200 varieties. That popularity also has helped bring the price down. For example, a pound of zinnia seeds — that's nearly 50,000 seeds — costs less than $25. Combine half a dozen types of flowers and you can cover a half-acre of ground in a stunning mix of natural beauty for about $100. With so many choices, however, it can be tough to decide what to plant.

Mike Lizotte, co-owner of wildflower seed retailer American Meadows, recommends starting with a mix designed for your specific region. Some have as many as 25 flowers. "A lot of our customers start with a mix and then move to individual species that tend to do best in their soil and weather conditions," he said. "One of the great things about wildflowers is that many grow well in a variety of regions and soils with very little or no care at all."

Prep the bed

Before you throw down some flower seeds, you'll need to prepare the planting area. Lizotte recommends killing the existing vegetation with a nonselective herbicide like RoundUp in the early spring, right after grasses and other plants start to grow. Glyphosate, the active ingredient in RoundUp, is an environmentally safe herbicide that won't harm birds or mammals, but will effectively kill all existing plant life it touches.

Once the vegetation dies, turn the dead plant matter under and expose a layer of soil with either a disk pulled behind a tractor or a garden tiller. The key is to expose soil so the seed can effectively germinate. However, before spreading the seed, wait two to three weeks and re-spray any new unwanted growth that will likely appear. A few weeks after that, spread the seed, but only if rain is in the immediate forecast.

"It's best just to spread the seed without attempting to cover it. Small seeds can get buried too deep," said Lizotte. "As long as it comes in contact with soil it should germinate fine with adequate moisture."
Weed control

Once the flowers start growing, you'll need to control weeds. No matter how many times you attempt to kill them prior to planting, more will come up. Weeds rob your flowers of vital nutrients and moisture; they also outcompete them for sunlight. Unchecked, weeds like fescue and Bermuda grass can actually swallow your entire wildflower meadow. Fortunately, there are a number of grass-selective herbicides that are safe and easy to use.

Broadleaf weeds, such as ragweed, curly dock and pigweed, are more difficult to control because there are no herbicides that kill them without also harming your flowers. The only way to keep them in check is either by pulling them by hand or spot-spraying individual plants with a nonselective herbicide. It's hard work, but you'll eventually win the battle if you stay on top of the weeds.

"It's just like any type of gardening," Lizotte said. "The more time you put into it, the more you'll get out of it."
But even if you only put a little time into your wildflower meadow, you will be rewarded with a summer-long rainbow of living color. — David Hart

WANT MORE? > These wildflower seed mail order companies have thorough question-and-answer pages on their websites, offering selection, seeding rate, planting and weed-control advice. Here are some of the better ones:

American Meadows
www.americanmeadows.com

Seedland
www.wildflowermix.com

Vermont Wildflower Farm
www.vermontwildflowerfarm.com

Wildseed Farms
www.wildseedfarms.com