Brief Guide: Native and non native Farmland Flowers

Sowing Rate: 1 gram per square metre

100% Native & Non Native Wild Flowers (of which)
30% English Vetch vicia sativa 16% Sainfoin onobrychis viciifolia 8% Corn Cockle agrostemma githago 8% Borage borago officinalis 6% Crimson Clover trifolium incarnatum 4% Phacelia phacelia tanacetifolia 4% Poppy papervar rhoeas 4% Birdsfoot Trefoil lotus corniculatus L 4% Yellow Trefoil medicago lupulina  4% Alfalfa medicago sativia L 4% Corn Marigold chrysanthemum segetum 2% Corn Chamomile anthemis arvensis 2% Cornflower centaurea cyanus 2% Red Clover trifolium pratensis 2% White Clover trifolium repens
   
Additional Information:
Before the introduction of intensive farming, the use of heavy machinery and herbicide, our farmland was a more diverse landscape with many summer flowering weeds, legumes and specialised local crops. Sainfoin for example was only grown on the Cotswold Hills and Hampshire Downs providing a high protein feed for hard working horses. The flower of Sainfoin (pictured) attracted bees with great excitement. Borage is another crop long gone from our countryside and although white (and to a lesser extent red) clover has made a certain resurgence in use over recent years, it rarely has the opportunity to flower before being cut for silage. So these flowers are of our great grandfathers days, our mostly forgotten heritage and maybe what the bees and butterflies are really missing from their modern habitats. Sow spring to late summer.
For further information on Wildflowers see our Grass Matters site