Non-Native Annual Wildflower Mixes versus Native Perennial Wildflower Mixes

The mixes you pick up at the grocery store labeled Wildflower Mix are not native wildflowers, they are flowers that go wild in your garden. That is not a crime - it just depends on what you are after. These mixes contain fast growing seedy annual plants like Poppies and Bachelor Buttons that germinate fast and will flower in the first year. You do need to do some homework before purchasing one because sometimes they contain problematic plants like Baby’s Breath which you don’t want to set loose in your neighborhood.

An Annual plant’s main mission in life is to make seed so they produce a lot of flowers and a lot of seeds. This can be nice for a few years but eventually they will begin to choke each other out so that you end up with a lot of one or two varieties jammed into the space so thickly they can’t prosper and don’t look nice. You can maintain these spaces by dead-heading and thinning to keep it looking nicer longer but eventually it will need an overhaul. These flowers are often not frost tolerant and their flowering periods are generally limited to the warm weather of late spring and summer.

A lot of the difference between Annual and Perennial Wildflower mixes comes down to instant gratification. Perennials require more time to germinate and grow but they live a long time and with a well thought out mix you will have flowers from early spring to early fall providing much needed early and late season pollen sources. Many native plants have relationships with insects and wildlife that we don’t fully know about or understand. Non-native annual wildflower mixes miss out here. While there are some annual native wildflowers the selection is very limited and it would be my observation that being an annual in a colder, volatile and unpredictable climate like ours would not be as advantageous as being a perennial.

I by no means am a purist so if you’re not either, I would consider doing both an annual and a perennial seed mix to give you some instant gratification and some long-term reward. You will have to learn which is which and be sure to limit the amount of annual seeds you allow to mature so they don’t go wild in your space. Also consider reading the article Establishing Native Wildflowers if you have not already done so.