Often overlooked in smaller gardens in favour of more traditional ornamental plants, wildflowers are often just as beautiful, offer a huge variety of textures and colours and will adapt well to containers in varied urban conditions. They are also beneficial to wildlife, so it’s important to compliment cultivated ornamental plants with A native plant is one that originated or arrived naturally in a particular place without human involvement. In the British Isles, native plants are those that were here during the last ice age or have arrived unaided since.
Most wildflowers can be grown from seed in spring and many can also be sown in autumn for an earlier display the following year. For an easy or last minute alternative, in case you miss the seed-sowing window, you can also buy ready-grown Seedlings or young plants grown singly in small modules, with the advantage that they can be transplanted with minimal root disturbance. Bedding plants and young veg plants are often sold as plug plants of various sizes, with smaller ones requiring more aftercare. They usually need to be potted up and grown on indoors until large enough to plant outside.
Make sure to choose plants relative to your pot size and use a free-draining compost. Wildflowers are typically low maintenance to care for once established and won’t need any special treatment beyond the usual container basics such as re-potting, watering and deadheading. They are also used to less fertile soils, which makes them less likely to need a feed than typical pot display plants.
The 10 wildflowers listed below, selected by Head Gardener at Plant Co-operative Liz Dalby-Webb, grow well in city centre gardens.
The delicate musky scent of Malva moschata becomes stronger in a small space and this makes it a great choice for a balcony or small courtyard garden. The fragrant, pale pink, bowl-like flowers will appear in abundance from mid-summer and will continue to bloom right through to autumn. Commonly found on roadsides and churchyards, this plant prefers dry places and a decent amount of sunshine. Its final height can vary but it can grow up to 1m tall, so you will need to grow it in a large pot of at least 30cm.
Much loved by bees and hoverflies, Anthriscus sylvestris is a tall, fast growing Perennials are plants that live for multiple years. They come in all shapes and sizes and fill our gardens with colourful flowers and ornamental foliage. Many are hardy and can survive outdoors all year round, while less hardy types need protection over winter. The term herbaceous perennial is used to describe long-lived plants without a permanent woody structure (they die back to ground level each autumn), distinguishing them from trees, shrubs and sub-shrubs.
There’s no doubt that Centaurea cyanus is a good choice for a pot display. It’s hardy, easy to grow from seed and will thrive in most urban spaces. Cornflowers are annuals, which means they only live for one year. This also means they thrive to survive and will adapt to not-so-perfect conditions. In urban spaces, they will vary in size and shape depending on conditions, but they are usually worth giving a try in most spaces and their average height is 60cm. As they are hardy, they can be sown as early as autumn and from spring to early summer.
A must have plant for a mini-meadow pot display, mix with other cornfield Annuals are plants that complete their life cycle in one growing season. They are generally easy to grow from seed or can be bought as young plants from garden centres. Annuals are ideal for growing in summer containers and filling gaps in borders. Some examples of annuals include sunflowers, cosmos, sweet peas and zinnia.
Named after its seed pods which look like birds feet, Lotus corniculatus – commonly known as bird’s foot trefoil – is a low-growing member of the pea family typically found wild in grassy places such as moorlands and coastal areas. It grows to around 35cm tall and has yellow and orange flowers which look like little slippers.
It’s a versatile plant and its creeping habit lends itself very well to container growing. It’s a great choice for container planting in pots, window baskets and hanging baskets as it flowers for a really long time, from spring through to autumn. Bees are also a huge fan of this plant – Deadheading is the process of removing spent flowers from plants to encourage more blooms and prevent seed production. This helps to redirect the plant's energy into producing more flowers rather than producing seeds.
Viola odorata is a low-growing perennial perfect for planting around the edge of pots or as native bedding in a hanging basket, window box or planter. These little beauties are sweet scented, with edible purple flowers and pretty heart-shaped leaves. They will flower from late winter until early spring, bringing seasonal interest and food for early pollinators in the quieter, colder months. Follow with Viola riviniana for a longer season –these relatives are unscented but will flower through to early summer keeping the season going a little longer.
An excellent choice for small space gardeners, Thymus serpyllum thrives in pots and troughs due to its compact size and mat-forming growth habit. It is an edible, evergreen, aromatic shrub which prefers dry, sunny conditions and well-drained soil and in the summer months it will become a dense carpet of pinkish-purple blooms, attracting bees and butterflies from afar.
Creeping thyme will also grow well in a hanging basket and is relatively drought tolerant once established. Try growing it as a living Mulch is a layer of material, at least 5cm (2in) thick, applied to the soil surface in late autumn to late winter (Nov-Feb). It is used to provide frost protection, improve plant growth by adding nutrients or increasing organic matter content, reducing water loss from the soil, for decorative purposes and suppressing weeds. Examples include well-rotted garden compost and manure, chipped bark, gravel, grit and slate chippings.
A pretty addition to any garden, Campanula rotundifolia is very resilient to urban spaces. Naturally found in dry, exposed areas such as hill slopes and cliff faces, despite the delicate look, these tough plants will handle strong winds and fare well in either sun or part shade. These plants will grow happily in medium-sized pots or in a mixed planter, and from midsummer to early autumn they will produce nodding, blue, bell-shaped flowers atop tall slender stems. The whole plant is edible, so give the flowers a try in your salads. Save some for nature though, these are particularly loved by honeybees and bumblebees.
Veronica chamaedrys is a perennial creeping A term generally applied to non-woody, flowering plants that are natural to a particular area and grow there without human assistance. More accurately, British wildflowers normally applies to UK natives including plants introduced into the wild before 1500.
For container planting or a hanging basket display it’s always a good move to include some trailing plants for a dramatic cascading effect. Cue, Galium verum. This beauty has a bad reputation for being a rampant spreader and taking over in traditional gardens, but if contained in a hanging basket, it can spill out freely, causing little trouble to its neighbours.
In summer it produces sweet, honey-scented golden yellow flowers and it is also a food plant for many moth species including the hummingbird hawk moth. Low maintenance once established, this plant requires little watering and is easy to grow from seed.
Brighten up shady corners with the cheerful pink flowers of Silene dioica. This low-maintenance perennial grows naturally in lightly shaded woodland and along hedgerows and will also thrive in containers in a partially shaded urban environment. Red campion begins flowering in late spring and continues through summer with regular visitors to pollinate, including bees, butterflies and hoverflies.
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