Bird & Butterfly Mix

Sadly no sprouts from any of my wildflower packs I purchased from native this year.

I planted these in mid-March, and about four weeks in it looks like almost every seed has germinated successfully. I simply mixed a few handfuls with some sphagnum moss, dusted it over the area I wanted, then covered in a very light layer of garden soil and watered generously to keep them in place. For the first two weeks the germination rate seemed fairly low, but I kept watering in the morning and at night or whenever I noticed the soil layer had dried out, and that seemed to do it. It was slow, but nearly every seed must have germinated, so keep at it and be consistent with your watering! About a month later, the patch is looking very healthy and I’ve been able to identify multiple seedlings of every type of wildflower listed. Once the patch was sprouting vigorously I backed off on the watering somewhat and they seem to be very happy. I plan to use some fertilizer extremely sparingly to get them to grow huge, and so far they have taken well to it, but for a patch a few square feet in size, I am only using a very light dusting of fertilizer and it is considerably less than my vegetables demand. They also seem to love the heat, and I notice more growth on hotter days here in Tempe. I’m so excited to watch them bloom!

love it! germinated quickly!

So the seeds I bought only have about 50% germination rate. I think the ratios of different flowers listed were incorrect. The only blooms I got were parry penstemon, california poppy, and coreopsis. There were no lupine, cosmos, purple coneflowes, or blue flax.

I planted these last September- they bloomed beautifully and attracted bees, butterflies and hummingbirds! Some lasted all winter, and new ones have sprouted where I planted the ones last fall! Very beautiful!!