Throughout the country, Landscape Architects are including wildflowers in their planting plans for a number of reasons, the most important of which are masses of color, low maintenance and cost to the client.

But, there is a problem with the wildflower program in that far too few Landscape Architects truly understand how to specify wildflowers. In most cases they depend entirely on stock seed mixes produced by seed distributors and don’t take several variables into consideration.

Site specific wildflower seed mixes prepared especially for landscape architectural design use are available. Wildseed, Inc., of Houston, Texas, one the nation’s largest wildflower seed producers and installation contractors, for example, works directly with Landscape Architects to design wildflower seed mixes that take into consideration such things as color, bloom succession, water requirements and maintenance demands. They can design a mix that has only those flowers which are the color of the client’s building, if it goes that far. According to John Thomas, President of Wildseed, Inc., they are frequently called upon to design a mix and plant wildflowers for a “grand opening” that is only a month or so away.

This is the answer for the Landscape Architect. It is actually a rifle approach, rather than a shotgun approach that has existed in the past using wildflower mixes. These wildseed mixes contain only wildflower seed, rather than some stock mixes which frequently contain inert matter such as rice hulls and vermiculite. “More native plant material should be used as the base of the mixture. Non-natives should be used for quick color, but be sure that there is a native flower base so the flowers are self-perpetuating,” explained Laura Quatrochi, President of Wildflowers International, a Napa, California-based company specializing in custom design seed mixtures.

Looking at the prime reasons for planting wildflowers, let’s take the “masses of color” first. No other ornamental flower plantings can attain not only the true “masses of color,” but also offer a three-to-four month blooming period highlighted by various colors from various species of flowers in bloom succesion. This can be done less expensively than any other type of flower.

Today, Americans are looking more to nature to provide their sense of beauty with the epitome of viewing pleasure. Most everyone remembers wildflowers growing in fields and along roadsides in their childhood. “On a broad scale or roadway, it is better to use large bands of color rather than a mixture. The mixture does not have the impact that one band of color or, say, two or three varieties of a yellow native,” Quatrochi stated.

Maintenance is a vital consideration in any planting plan. According to Quatrochi, “The best maintenance that can be done is before planting. The soil should be loosened, not turned up, or else dormant weed seeds will germinate. Herbiciding should be used the first few years and then management techniques, such as mowing, should be used.” With proper wildflower seed installation, weeding should be minimal to almost non-existent as long as the wildflower seed are planted in abundance. Mowing is also non-existent during the wildflower blooming season, which usually lasts three to four months, depending on the part of the country and type of seed mix used.

Water is a most valuable entity, especially with the water table dropping and water becoming more scarce and expensive in many areas. With wildflowers, once they are established, watering is not a major consideration. In all but the most arid regions, wildflowers do not have to be planted in irrigated areas. Along roadsides or broad applications, wildflowers must be natives; however, on a smaller scale and to prolong blooming, supplemental irrigation can be used,” Quatrochi said.

All these things are essentially “cost savers” for the client and no client in today’s economic slowdown is going to scoff at a savings that will add to the bottom line, most especially if they can have the beauty of abundance of color that will set the project apart from others in the area.

In one instance, a high-rise office complex in Houston had Wildseed, Inc., plant an entire meadow, which office workers could see from their desks, in wildflowers that would bloom from March until June in total masses of color – shades of red and yellow mixed with white and green foilage as a backdrop.

Wildflowers are natives and, although some wildflowers now have been adapted to every area in the country, the overall ambience of seeing color, produced from nature and growing, is the best of all worlds for those who have the opportunity to see it.

Take all these things into consideration – the masses of color, the low maintenance, the reduced water requirement and the ambience of seeing nature at its very best?EUR??,,????'??+and strongly consider wildflower areas for your next design project.