In the case of water, wildflowers do require much less water, once they are established and, in more naturally arid areas, or in places like Texas where drought is a constant problem, this is a distinct advantage.

Lednicky suggests that in budgeting for wildflowers, accommodation must be made for getting the wildflowers started. If they are not in an irrigated area, water, either from a truck or with temporary irrigation equipment should be used, “because once you get them started, they’ll be with you for a long, long time,” he stated.

Both commercial and institutional landscape designs profit in many ways from the use of wildflowers because there are usually large expanses of acreage that must be covered with some type of vegetation. But, smaller residential landscapes are also great candidates for wildflowers. The beauty of the flowers is there in the Springtime, then when flowers have gone to seed, all the homeowner has to do is mow, just like he/she always does. But those few months of magnificent color will remain in their minds all year long and the flowers will come back again “next year” (if the right seed mixes are chosen).

Planting Time

The time of the year that wildflowers are planted is another very important element in getting a full, beautiful stand of color.

Planting time depends a great deal on the part of the country!

Unlike the way nature provides for ensuing generations of wildflowers by scattering literally millions of seeds in the summer months, specific site planting of wildflowers should be done when conditions are the most favorable and in most areas of the country, that is from late August in the north to October and November in the south.

Wildflower planters?EUR??,,????'??+machines that can plant seven or eight species of wildflowers at one time are now on the market. One specific machine, designed and built by John Thomas and marketed by Wildseed, Inc., is used almost exclusively on large highway plantings throughout the country. This planter has bins for the seed graduated for the size of >the seed planted, from the tiny Indian Paintbrush seed to the large Bluebonnet seed and the seeds are “drilled” into the ground and covered to get definite soil contact.

Sizes of individual seeds are another point which comes into the budgeting for wildflower seeds. Many Landscape Architects want to treat wildflower seeds the same way they normally treat garden flower seed?EUR??,,????'??+and that just won’t work. Just look at nature, a bluebonnet field will produce more than one-million seeds per acre in nature. That is almost impossible to duplicate from a budgetary standpoint, but many of those seeds germinate early because of weather conditions and are lost during the long hot summer. Hence, the reasons for planting in the Fall.

In the same connection, many Landscape Architects who are not acquainted with wildflowers look at seed cost per pound rather than the actual cost per acre to get a full stand of color. Corn poppies, for example, cost $25 per pound, but only two pounds are needed to guarantee a full stand of color on an acre of land, if the weather conditions are right, or if it is irrigated. That is only $50 per acre for the seed and planting, with a 4 drill planter such as the one discussed above, is about $300 per acre. That is a total of only $350 per acre. No other plant can give the client more color and more beauty at that kind of a price!

Why Wildflowers?

There are many, many reasons to specify wildflowers and Landscape Architects throughout the country are becoming aware of their significance in design. With the emergence of xeriscape situations in many parts of the country, the arid conditions under which they will grow are of particular interest.

Budgetary constraints are coming to the fore more than ever before and the Landscape Architect, anxious to please the client on the budget laid out, is grateful that there is something beautiful that can be offered at a reasonable cost.

And then there is just the sheer beauty -of a field of wildflowers. That, in itself, is another very valid reason for the choice.

“We all feel that our major obligation, not only to our clients but to the people who see and admire our work is to offer something that is beautiful and aesthetically pleasing,” Rowland Jackson, senior Landscape Architect at MND & Partners, Inc. of Dallas, said. “With the advances being offered us in understanding the whys and hows of wildflowers, we are continuing to gain knowledge that will enhance, in many ways, our designs and our ambitions to design beauty into the landscape.”

“As people like Wildseed, Inc. have brought more kinds of wildflower seeds on the market, along with the kind of knowledge of how to plant them and how to make them work in various places, it gives all Landscape Architects a new tool to use in solving problems, not only of budgets, but of aesthetics,” Ben Lednicky concluded. “It is just another addition to be used now in our palette of plants!”

Kay Tiller is an Associate Editor for LASN and a freelance writer from Richardson, Texas. She is also in charge of public relations for the Texas chapter of the ASLA, and has written for a number of periodicals in the “green Industry.”