Wildflowers & Native Grasses

Customers and contractors are discovering the increasing benefits of seeding wildflowers and native grasses – environmental and maintenance advantages that are increasing the demand for naturalistic groundcover. An alternative to traditional turf, the varying wildflower grass blends create a kaleidoscope landscape with an ecological edge that makes the option appealing.

"The landscape market is driven by the customers or the property managers, and more of them are asking for landscapes with wild flowers and native grasses," observed Neil Diboll, owner and president of Prairie Nursery, Westfield, Wis. "The wild flowers are showy, and the grasses are desirable because of their texture, structure and fall color that they bring to the landscape. The flowers are appealing for their overall color."

Contractors are choosing to plant the wild grasses for their naturalistic appeal, and others are seeding the wildflowers and native grasses as a sort of trouble-shooter, Diboll noted. Once grown, these plants serve as effective buffer strips between intensively managed areas and water features, protect water quality by filtering applied products, curb erosion and are ideal for problematic areas like heavy clay soil mix and dry sandy soils that cannot establish turf.

"There are many advantages – first and foremost is that native grasses offer an ecologically sound landscape that reduces the use of pesticides and fertilizers, although planting naturalistic landscapes does not eliminate the need for them," Diboll said.

Blends of perennials and grasses create different mixes for each customer, with standard mixes typically containing 15 to 20 flower species and two to four ornamental grasses, Diboll explained. Generally, there is a combination of flowers and grasses in bloom because perennials bloom for a few weeks or a month at a time.

"A lot of customers use transplants to create native gardens so they don’t have to worry about whether or not they’ll be hearty," he added. "Some people will mix these gardens with existing perennials – they want to be careful that they don’t have 8-foot-tall grasses on a neighbor’s property line, which is why we recommend transplants for residential areas."

Norm Poppe, general manager of Applewood Seed Company, Arvada, Colo., said custom blending by suppliers for customers is common, whether for height, usage, strictly native plants, single-color mixes or high-color mixes. Suppliers of these plants also carry pre-mixed blends to take some of the guesswork out of the process for contractors. For example, Poppe said Applewood introduced a series of new blends of native grasses last year.

"The contractor doesn’t have to do as much custom blending because the four different mixes we already have and the individual species we offer cover the bases," he said. "The end user doesn’t have to have as much knowledge to determine how much of each species is required."

The part of working with these plants that contractors might find most challenging – site preparation – also makes some consumers impatient. Diboll said the bulk of the labor related to native grass installations is required at this point in the process, which leaves a less-than-desirable appearance for a little while. Contractors first must completely remove weeds from the ground surface before planting, which can take up to one year and require up to three herbicide sprayings in a season in order to plant in the fall or following spring. Because perennials are slow growing, the growth only needs to be mowed two or three times the first year before annual burning can begin in the third year. Most wildflowers are perennials in native grasses, and they require three growing seasons to reach maturity.

"Our society is all about instant gratification, and working with these plants does not represent that type of project," Diboll warned. "A lot of contractors don’t want to take the time and tell customers not to do this – this is slow success. Sometimes clients say they don’t want to wait a year."

But Diboll said in a turf-type situation, if the land is sprayed in the fall and stripped or dethatched, the surface will be ready for planting in the spring. Generally, the "window of opportunity" for seeding is between March 1 and June 30.

Despite the initial care wild grasses demand, the labor required to maintain the landscape is still minimal, Poppe said. Contractors see cost savings because the wildflowers need little mowing and watering. Water conservation also attracts many homeowners to this type of groundcover.

And wildflowers and native grasses bring a different appearance to landscapes each year. Weather, maintenance, soil condition and wildlife are variables that determine the presentation of the plants, Poppe mentioned.

This unpredictability, however, is what leads some contractors to shy away from planting the grasses.

"Some are not really comfortable with these plants because they don’t have as much familiarity with them as they do with other materials – they tend to stick with what they know," he observed. "You know that a tree or a lawn will be a tree or a lawn in five years, while a wildflower meadow will change over time from various conditions."

An ever-changing, natural landscape is typically the goal of people who choose to plant wildflowers, Poppe said.

"The biggest thing we see is that contractors usually aren’t familiar with planting ecosystems," he noted. "Most contractors install mono-culture plantings grouped together with turf, ornamentals and shrubs. Oftentimes, they are not familiar with planting an ecosystem, the relations between various species, and that some input will benefit some species and cause detriment to others from water to planting rates. It takes a happy medium to keep an ecosystem at a functional rate."

The Midwest and Northeast are the most popular regions for wildflower and native grass growth, Diboll said. And the distinction between generic wildflowers and native wildflowers depends on the area of the country. Perennial prairie flowers have grown for hundreds of years in the Midwest, while many of the wildflowers that are sold commercially are annuals that lack staying power. For a consumer planting a long-term meadow, perennials that adapt to the region are essential for a permanent, low-maintenance landscape.

"These plants last for decades," Diboll pointed out. "They create a wildlife habitat for birds and butterflies, meanwhile creating an ecosystem that is beautiful. You can get all seasons of interest with flowers in the summer and grasses in the fall and winter."