On our 2 acres of land, we have a few areas that always look more attractive when they are brightened up by the addition of a colorful blend of wildflowers. Last spring I found the Pennington Seed wildflower mixtures, and I purchased one bag. This spring I bought all three varieties that were in stock, and I want to tell you about the Pennington Seed Daisy Garden Wildflower Seed Mixture.
The Daisy Garden version comes in a bright yellow bag, containing 24 ounces. The bag states that this version of wildflower seeds will produce “A beautiful, long-lasting meadow or border of bright colors”, and that these flowers make an “Excellent choice to plant for cut flowers”. The 24-ounce bag contains 10% seeds and 90% inert matter, and it will cover up to 1000 square feet.
These flowers can get quite tall, the bag says they will grow (on average) 18-24 inches tall. The seeds do best when planted in the spring or late fall, and do the best in full sun to partial shade. Contents include Chinese Aster, Pot Marigold, Bachelor Buttons, Shasta Daisy, Painted Daisy, Chrysanthemum, Marigold, Lance Leaf, Tick Seed, Cosmos Sensation, Sulphur Flower, African Daisy, Indian Blanket, Black Eyed Susan, and Cape Daisy.
Colors are indeed bright and vibrant, including yellow, gold, orange, coral, pink, and white. Since our land was hard and rocky, we first had to purchase a lot of top soil as a base, making sure we had about 3-4″ of soil for the flowers to take seed in. I used my hand spreader to apply the seeds, but since the bag contains 90% inert matter (which looks like very fine sawdust), it is so much easier to spread these seeds even without the use of a spreader.
Once the seeds have been spread, you need to take a rake and work them gently into the soil, the package says 1/8″ – 1/4″ deep, but this is very hard to judge. We just rake the area lightly and this works fine for us. Once the seeds are planted, you then need to water the area regularly because the soil needs to be kept moist in order for the seeds to germinate. The Pennington Seed Company does say that you can also apply a seed start fertilizer to “increase seeding success”, but our flowers are already starting to come up and we have never taken this extra step.
Last years flowers came in very full and thick, and added such a colorful look to our yard. We were able to enjoy our flowers all summer long, and even until the first freeze of the fall. I feel the quality of the Daisy Garden Wildflower Seed Mixture is a great value, and these were very easy to grow.