How to Grow the Wildflowers

While people love wildflowers in their natural environment, their potential as flowering landscape plants remains largely unfulfilled. Lifecycles of many wildflowers allow shifting from labor-intensive landscapes to plantings that require less maintenance. Wildflowers can replace part of a lawn and can be selected for varying bloom periods to extend colors from spring through fall. Here is a complete guide to growing more than 180 native and adapted plants, offering gardeners and homeowners ideas on creating colorful, low-water landscapes. It provides a wealth of information on how to use wildflowers in gardens of any size, from an entryway planting to a multiacre meadow. Step-by-step drawings show how to prepare planting sites to avoid weeds and how to seed, water, and maintain plantings for a long season.

Eric A. Johnson is the author of numerous books and articles on gardening. He lives in Palm Desert, California. Scott Millard is the author of Gardening in Dry Climates. He lives in Tucson.