The end of the summer is a time when we reap the rewards of all our hard work in the garden through the last few months.  Late summer borders should be spilling over with colourful plants now and the vegetable harvest hard to keep up with.  However if you have a moment to spare over the next few weeks this a good time to plan ahead to next year, especially if your garden is in need of a real injection of colour.  Try sowing an area of cornfield annuals now to brighten an empty spot next spring and summer.  These wildlife-friendly mixtures of annual wildflowers vary depending on your supplier, but generally contain a minimum of five species of easy to grow cornfield ‘weeds’ – corncockle, corn marigold, common poppy, cornflower and corn chamomile.  More sophisticated mixtures may include pheasant’s eye, wild forget-me-not, corn buttercup and night-flowering catchfly, but if you are planning on a wildflower area beware of mixes containing seeds such as English marigold (not a native in spite of its name) or larkspur.  Although these non-natives can provide nectar and pollen and are of great value in the wildlife garden, the true native mix has so much more charm as the component species are all of a similar height which gives a wonderful ‘sea of colour’ effect. 

This bright mixture of annuals can be breathtaking.  Its combination of colours and flower shapes is really unlike anything else we see in our gardens, with hues of bright yellow and red, cornflower blue, dark pink and white.  And all for just a small amount of effort now.These species once grew around the edges of our cornfields and other agricultural land as their names suggest.  Sadly most have been eradicated as their seeds contaminated grain.  The corncockle in particular, with its large black seeds, was known to be poisonous to livestock.  The others suffered from ‘tidier’ fields, cleaner seed and changing agricultural practices.  Cornflowers are now rarely seen but poppies and corn marigolds do sometimes occur in fields where seeds have been brought to the surface by deep ploughing.  One particular field of poppies in the Oxfordshire countryside brought so many people to see it a few years ago that the enterprising farmer charged visitors a small fee to wander through the sea of red blooms - an indication of how much we miss these colourful flowers in the countryside.

cornfield annuals

Many wildflowers germinate in the autumn, including some annuals that use this strategy to get ahead in the spring.  Corncockle, one of the usual components of a cornfield mixture, is one of those useful annuals that seems to be capable of germinating at almost any time of year except during the depths of winter, so an autumn sowing of a cornfield mix will result in the rapid appearance of this pretty large leaved seedling.  This means that what would otherwise have been bare soil will be covered through the winter, helping to maintain soil moisture once spring arrives.  It also results in better germination of the other species and affords them some protection from foraging seed-eating birds through the winter months.  Another advantage of sowing now is that there will always be good germination of the poppies in the spring as this species needs a period of cold, frosty weather to break dormancy.  I have sown many a cornfield area just too late in the spring for the poppies to show as all frosts had passed!  Lastly, sowing now means that your colourful mixture flowers earlier – from late May onwards – but that doesn’t mean it peters out sooner.  The corn chamomile and corn marigold in particular will go on flowering well into late summer regardless of when they germinated, resulting in a patch of wildlife friendly flowers for many months.

corncockle and corn chamomile

Bare soil is essential for this mix to do well, so your first task is to find an open sunny spot that needs an injection of colour and life!  Most of us can find a spot like this, however small.  I often use this mixture to fill newly created borders or spaces when my perennials are not ready to go out, or if I haven’t quite decided what I want to grow in that spot.  It is also useful to sow between new shrubs or perennials, covering the bare spaces as the bigger plants fill out over time.  Alternatively you could dedicate an area to these wildflowers as they will seed themselves year upon year.  The soil must be relatively weed free but can be of any type.  These flowers are adapted to grow in just about any soil from sand to clay, but they do prefer full sun.  A few germinating annual weeds such as groundsel or chickweed in your seed bed are not going to significantly spoil the final effect, but perennial weeds such as nettles, couch grass or docks will be a problem over time.  It is best to dig the ground over thoroughly, removing dandelion roots and couch as you go.  You may like to leave the spot for a week or two to allow annual weed seeds to germinate if these interlopers are going to bother you.  These can then be removed quickly by hoeing before you sow.  At this stage you need to calculate roughly how large your area is and order your seed mix from a reputable supplier.  The sowing rate recommended is usually 2 grams per square meter but this does not need to be accurate.  Over-sowing though is not advised as the plants will be small and spindly if they have too little space.  Best to err on the side of too little seed rather than too much and any leftover seed will keep well for many years in a cool place.

Once your ‘weeds’ are taken care of (and some would say you are sowing weeds anyway) rake the soil well to a fine tilth.  You do not need a perfect seedbed but it is always useful to give seeds a good start if you can. Shake up your mixture thoroughly or all the tiny poppy seeds will be at the bottom of the packet and you will end up with an uneven distribution.  If you have accurate kitchen scales, weigh out two grams to give you a benchmark amount as sowing begins, or mix the seed with a little fine sand so you can see more easily where you have distributed it.  I must confess I never take this part too seriously but just distribute the seed as evenly and thinly as I can by broadcasting it in front of me as I walk backwards over the area (looking out for the rake which I have inevitably left on the ground!).  Once the area is covered (and don’t be tempted to ‘get rid of’ excess seed – keep it for another occasion) you now need to push the seeds gently into the soil.  This is best done by walking methodically across the area treading the seeds down onto the soil surface.  They do not need covering with soil and indeed will not germinate well if they are heavily raked in.  The poppies in particular need light to trigger germination.  If you fear the effects of your local greenfinch population, hang some old redundant CDs around the plot to sparkle in the sun, but this mixture has never failed to germinate well for me in spite of the inevitable losses to seed eating birds.

The corncockle seedlings plus a few corn chamomile should appear within a couple of weeks and the other species generally germinate in March.  Flowering will begin in May and can continue right into September and even October if the weather is good.  In all, this mixture is excellent value.  The cornflower and corn marigold attract butterfly species such as small copper and common blue, the poppy and corn chamomile have plenty of pollen and are magnets for bumblebees and hoverflies, and larger butterfly species will take the occasional sip of nectar from the corncockle.  And as the flowers go over, goldfinches tussle for the seeds of the cornflower which they love.  In October or November simply pull out the dead stalks, scatter the seed and start again.

If you are feeling adventurous you could add the odd pinch of something extra to the mix (I sometimes include Shirley poppy varieties such as Angel Wings or Mother of Pearl which are varieties of the native common poppy in shades of pink and mauve) for a softer foil to the bright primary colours, but left to its own devises this natural combination cannot fail to please you and your garden wildlife.