Flower Seeds for Wildflower Beds, Bees and Edible Blooms

Most flower mixes disappoint for one boring reason: people sow them like they're feeding ducks. A handful lands in one spot, comes up as a dense clump, and half of it chokes itself out. Tip the packet into a jar with two handfuls of dry sand, shake it, then scatter in two passes at right angles to each other. Rake it in gently, because most of these seeds want a few millimetres of soil over them and nothing more.

Blue Wildflowers, Red Poppies and What's Really in the Packet

The Wildflowers Seed Mixture runs to over sixty species, so you get cornflower (Centaurea cyanus), corn poppy (Papaver rhoeas), calendula (Calendula officinalis), forget-me-not (Myosotis alpestris), yarrow (Achillea millefolium), foxglove (Digitalis purpurea), wild carrot (Daucus carota) and chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) all elbowing each other for space. If it's blue wildflowers you're after, Cornflower 'Blue Ball' gives one shade all summer, while Forget-me-not 'Indigo Blue' is shorter, earlier and happier out of direct sun. Watch out for the trade-off with any mix: you don't choose the winners. Some years the poppies take over and the lupins barely show, so if you want a predictable block of colour, go single species instead: Corn Poppy 'Single Red', Alyssum (Lobularia maritima), or Red Coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria) Semi-Tall.

From an Early March Start to a July Job

Edible Flower Mix goes in early March. Alyssum wants early April under glass, then transplant roughly 5-6 weeks later. Summer Flowers Seed Mixture, Flower Seed Mix for Bees and Japanese Flower Carpet are all April sowings. Climbing Flowers Seed Mix goes straight into thin rows in mid to late spring, right where you want it climbing. Corn Poppy 'Single Red' goes in late spring and flowers June to September. Forget-me-not 'Indigo Blue' is the odd one out, sown into open ground in July in a shady spot with the soil kept moist. Most of this shelf is annual, though cornflowers and poppies often drop seed and reappear on their own the next year, and the Cerastium Buddy Pack is a fast perennial. Nasturtium 'Single Flowered' (Tropaeolum majus) climbs to around 3m, so give it a wall or a fence rather than a windowbox. Cuphea ignea, the Cigar Plant, is the indoor one: direct sun, warmth, well-draining soil, and separate the seedlings into small pots once they hit 8-10cm.

The Mixes Bees and Butterflies Actually Turn Up For

Flower Seed Mix for Bees is built around nectar-heavy species and sown in April. Butterfly Flower Seed Mix leans on phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia), red clover (Trifolium pratense), lavender (Lavandula angustifolia), viper's bugloss (Echium plantagineum) and zinnia. On a warm afternoon the hum over a patch of phacelia is loud enough to hear from the back door. Alyssum is a bee magnet too, and the Scented Garden Flower Mix packs 15 varieties, so insects handle the pollination while you get the smell.

Petals on a Plate, and Sachets Sown Beside a Crop

Nasturtium flowers are edible and carry a peppery bite that works in a salad. The Edible Flower Mix (sown early March) holds Althea rosea, borage, Viola and Aztec marigold among others. Stick to the packets we describe as edible; the rest of this shelf is for looking at. The eight Buddy Packs are small weighed sachets, 0.20 grams of Cerastium up to 2.50 grams of Sunflower, plus Marigold, Alfalfa, White Clover, Red Clover, Lavender and Borage. They go in next to a crop, not instead of it. Marigold has a long history as a border plant that deters beetles and leaf hoppers, and sunflowers pull aphids away from the plants you care about, but we're not putting a number on what that does to a harvest. Cerastium forms a thick silvery grey mat that shades the soil, and it can get greedy, so hack it back without guilt.

Where We'd Start

First bed: Summer Flowers Seed Mixture with a packet of Corn Poppy 'Single Red'. Filling a big space: the Zammi's Farm Flower Seed Pack bundles seven of the mixes in one go.