Meadow Flowers
Most summer garden perennials are naturalized natives, happy to grow wild in what used to be their natural habitat, sometimes happier, to the gardener’s frustration.
Coneflowers, daisies, bee balms, goldenrods, poppies, cornflowers, Queen Anne’s lace, yarrow, Black-Eyed Susans, chamomile, lupines and yes, even the ubiquitous orange daylilies, are meadow flowers, raised to thrive in open fields, with the sun and the wind in their hair.
What does that mean for the gardener?
All these plants love heavy soils, don’t mind drought, and need lots of sunshine. They dislike crowding and getting their feet wet, because that exposes them to diseases like fungi and rot, and prefer rather poor dirt if they are to bloom abundantly. Too much fertilizer encourages them to develop excessive foliage instead.
Don’t bother mulching them, don’t amend the soil. In fact, the less you fuss over them, the better off they’ll be, and whatever you do, don’t disturb their roots.
And then again, some wild beauties, like chicory, Lady’s bedstraw, vetch, and heather you’ll just have to admire in the wild, they don’t do gardens.
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