How to Grow Native Wildflowers From Seed

May 19, 2025

Everybody has a strip somewhere that nothing will grow in. Along the driveway, out the front by the letterbox, the corner you keep meaning to do something with. Native wildflowers are the answer to that spot, and the reason is a bit backwards, because they actually prefer poor soil and resent being looked after.

Why they suit somebody with no time

They want poor ground, they hate being overwatered, and they do not want feeding, so all the things you would normally do to help a plant are the things that will set them back. Clear the weeds, scatter, water once, and then leave them alone. That is genuinely the whole method.

What you get back is not just flowers. They feed the local bees, they bring butterflies in, and birds start hanging around because there is something to eat. A patch that was bare dirt turns into the part of the yard with the most going on in it.

What does well around here

Everlastings, the papery pink and white ones, which self-seed and come back on their own.
Native bluebells, small blue and purple, up every spring.
Billy buttons, yellow globes on long stalks, good for cutting.
Cut-leaf daisies, low and spreading, which suit pots and the edge of a path.
Kangaroo grass, for texture and for the way it moves in the wind.

How to put them in

Clear the weeds out and loosen the top of the soil a bit without digging it over properly. Mix the seed through a bit of sand so you can see where it is landing, then broadcast it by hand and try not to be too neat about it. Give it one good soaking and then leave it, because the whole point is that they do not need you after that.

It is meant to look a bit patchy at first

The first year is usually uneven, which reads as a mistake and is not one. They fill in and thicken up the following season, and by the third year the ones that self-seed have moved themselves around into the spots they actually like better than the ones you chose.

Come and have a yak with us about what will handle your particular strip, because how much sun it gets and how hard the ground is will change what is worth putting in.

Shop related products

Brunnings Propagating Sand 5L. Mix the seed through it so you can see where it lands.
Brunnings Seed Raising Mix 5L. If you would rather start a few in trays and plant them out.
Martins Organic Sugar Cane Bale 11kg. A light mulch for the first season while they get going.

Seed ranges move with the season, so ask us what is in, or have a look through the D.T. Brown seed range and the rest of the garden centre.