Wildflowers

On drizzly January days you can actually still plant wildflower seeds. Fall is the traditional season, but I have had luck spreading wildflower seeds in January when I found some seeds that I had forgotten to spread in the fall.

My fenced in backyard is a modified wildflower meadow. I am responsible for mowing in that area because I know what the wildflower seedlings look like. I can preserve them as they emerge and not mow them down. It takes steady observation to learn what the different wildflower seedlings look like.

Last spring I was taken with the widespread roadside yellow wildflower called Greenthread (Telesperma filifolium). I vowed to start some in my backyard as I did not have any. I took some seeds from plants along the Winters Mill Parkway when they went to seed in the late summer. I also bought some seeds from Wildseed Farm in Fredericksburg. I did not know what the seedlings looked like so I put some of the seeds in a container with dirt. The seedlings put up thin grass-like leaves that I never would have noticed unless they were isolated. I hope I get some Greenthread flowers in my yard this spring.

I will have many wildflowers in my backyard this spring because In January I can see the following seedlings: Mexican Primrose, Engelmann’s Daisy, Red Corn Poppies, California Poppies, Wind Flowers, Blue Eyed Grass, Coreopsis, Blue Curls, Cedar Sage, Columbine, Standing Cypress, Four Nerve Daisy Fox-Glove Penstemon, Scarlet Flax, Blue Bonnets, Mexican Hats, and Gaillardia.

I am listing these so you can see what could grow in your fenced in yard. A few of them are deer resistant.

Most of these flower seeds can be purchased from the Wildseed Farm and/or from Native American Seed Co. Both of these Texas seed companies have online catalogs.

Written by Jackie Mattice, Hays County Master Naturalist