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Enough
of this planting of annual flowers! You know the drill. Buy them,
stick in the ground, admire, deadhead, pull up after the first frost in fall,
start over again after the final frost in spring. Pretty, but not true gardening,
I decided one gray January day as I eagerly anticipated the arrival of yet another
planting season.
Wildflowers! That’s what we need around the swimming
pool! Plant the seeds, let the flowers
become naturalized, neglect them, enjoy them every year thereafter. Now that sounds like my kind of
gardening. Yet, my previous experiences
with trying to start plants from seed had not been memorable. The tiny seeds just disappeared into the
ground, never to be seen or heard from again.
I
decided to go native for this project, following the precepts of the El Paso
Native Plant Society (http://www.npsnm.org/about/chapters/el-paso-texas/). The lady who
answered the phone at the recommended nursery said that yes, she sold native
wildflower seeds, but only in small seed packages. Why didn’t I order seeds by the pound on the
Internet? I had visions of the UPS man
delivering a tow sack full of seeds to my front door within days.
Here is the website I went to:
Here is the website I went to:
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| Buyer Beware! Seductive website.! http://www.plantsofthesouthwest.com |
Gorgeous color photos of native plants, all
in bloom, naturally. Should I start with
a pound of wildflower seeds or two?
After checking the price list, I settled on a modest one ounce package
of seeds for $8.00, plus shipping. The
seeds arrived in a few days in a very small envelope by U.S. mail. The names of the promised plants were intriguing. There were Pink Wild Snapdragon, Succulent Lupine, Owls Clover, Birdcage Primrose and ten others.
Meanwhile,
I noticed that the neighborhood grocery store had set up a display of
wildflower seeds to attract customers like me who were itching for
springtime. I picked up a box of seeds
out of curiosity, feeling superior because I had already bought mine
online. Two ounces for $1.00! I had just spent 16 times that amount on my
web-ordered seeds! But then I noticed
that the box contained only 12% flower seed mixture. And the names of the plants were less exotic
– Coreposis tinctoria mix, Chrysanthemum Shasta Daisy, Calendula officianalis,
and fourteen others. I bought the seeds
anyway.
The
big decision now was whether to mix or separate the seeds? Should I plant the over-priced native
wildflower seeds in one area and the Brand X seeds in another and let them compete? Or should I mix them up and never treat them
as if some were, well, special.
Now I'm looking forward to the
arrival of Daylight Savings Time. I can use that extra hour in
the evenings to baby the new wildflowers.
My husband will devote several hours to hoeing the flower beds, preparing them for planting, and
doing serious repair work on the automatic watering system. I'll work for about ten minutes and scatter the seeds, pressing them lightly into the ground with my foot. Now that’s my idea of gardening!
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