Wild flowers for driveway?

Thanks again John, that's a good idea.

 

Hi. Update on this one. In the end I did not have time to get plug plants as they would not have arrived in time so I got some same day delivery British wildflower and woodland mix and quickly sowed and scattered them to see what would happen.

In the driveway where I sowed. Some things came and died early summer, like little white thingies (sorry I did not manage to take a photo) I am not sure if they were part of what I planted or were just weeds . the dead ones pulled out easily though.
The only other thing of note that are current flowering at the moment are corncockle which have grown sporadically, some together and a few others on their own- but ideally they are too tall for the driveway. But they at least have been strong enough to take root and beat the weeds. . .


The Mexican Fleabane would have been good. Maybe I can try planting some early August (or will that be too late?). Failing that I will have to sow in autumn for next summer I guess.

As one post here alludes to. One problem with these wildflower (and similar) mixes is that you do not know what is going where.

In the garden and borders (where I also sowed and scattered the mix packs) the only thing that came out that I know I planted were the bluebells (but they were not very bright) that have now died off and seeded.
There are other things in and around the area where I put the seed mixes, but nothing has really flowered (apart from a few buttercups) and there seems to be more of the Willow weed (as identified in one of my threads here) which I suspect has grown of it's own accord and was not part of the seed mixes, but I cannot be sure.
So I am unsure of what I should pull out or leave - bearing in mind there is still July and August to see what happens.

 

How tall does that grow?

During my experimentation the only thing that flowered (apart from the usual weeds like willow herb) were some kind of cornflowers. But as they were spaced out and also about 20cm tall they kind of looked out of place.

 

Mexican fleabane will form an attractive sort of clump, around 30cm high.

 

I use it in my hanging baskets with fuchsias and trailing geraniums, it's a good filler and flowers longer than lobelia.

 

Darn. I think that will also be too tall. Ideally I am looking for something that does not grow tall.

 

Did anyone have any luck growing Mexican Fleabane from seed straight outside.

Just wondering if I have time to sow seeds now for summer 2023 to save me having to pay more to buy the plants in early spring time.

 

Mine were grown from seed. It's a while ago now, but I think I planted them early in the year and got flowers the first summer. My principal recollection is that the germination rate was, actually, very disappointing - I sprinkled a packet claiming to contain 100+ seeds into a tray and saw just 4 sprout! But those 4 have all grown into sturdy plants, which seed themselves freely.

 

Fleabane self seeds here very readily and loads of it is growing on the driveway outside the house. I saw some plants in the clearance section of the local garden centre a few years back and potted them up with some other bedding plants for some big pots at the front of the house hoping they would self seed about the place and it has worked out well. I see young plants of it sprouting up fairly regularly so there's a good chance what you are suggesting would work. I'd be inclined if you had enough seed to also put a few in pots on the inside of a south facing windowsill as an insurance policy in case those outside failed for some reason. They do look happier when it is warm.
Happy gardening!