Cornfield Annuals Mix
The only wildflower mix that delivers in its first summer, but it needs the soil disturbed again every single year.
If you want colour this year rather than in three years, this is the mix. Cornfield annuals are the plants that once grew in arable fields before herbicides, so they germinate fast on bare disturbed soil, flower within twelve weeks and set seed before autumn. What they will not do is persist. Leave the ground undisturbed and grass closes over them, and by year three there is nothing left.
Quick facts
- Botanical name
- Mixed species
- Type
- Open pollinated
- Category
- Annual cornfield mix
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Hardiness
- Hardy, takes Irish frost
- In Ireland
- Grows outdoors unprotected
- Germination
- 14 to 30 days at 8 to 18C
- Sowing rate
- 1.5g per square metre
- Height
- 75cm
- Position
- Full sun
- Containers
- Needs open ground
- In flower
- June to September
Sowing and harvest calendar for Cornfield Annuals Mix
Months shaded below are the reliable windows for Irish conditions.
Where to buy Cornfield Annuals Mix wildflower seeds in Ireland
Irish suppliers that stock this, so postage stays domestic and seed arrives in time to sow. These are plain links, not paid placements.
Order online
- Quickcrop Irish Every mix branded native Irish grown, including shade and flowering lawn options Ballymote based, lists sowing and harvest months per product and ships across Ireland. Visit Quickcrop , Co. Sligo
- Seedaholic Irish States its wildflower seed is produced within the British Isles Family run in Clonbur since 2005, deep heirloom range with detailed growing notes on every packet. Visit Seedaholic , Co. Galway
Why it suits Ireland
The Irish complaint about wildflower meadows is that the first summer is dull, and this mix is the answer to it. Corn poppy, cornflower, corn marigold, corn chamomile and corncockle all germinate readily at Irish spring temperatures, need no cold period first, and flower from June through to September.
They are also the one wildflower group that copes with a rich soil. Because they complete their whole life in a single season they do not have to survive being shaded out in year two, so a decent garden soil produces a fuller display rather than ruining it. That makes this the mix for a new build with builder’s rubble and imported topsoil, a stripped verge, or the corner of a vegetable plot left fallow for a year.
The catch is wind. Poppies and corn marigold at 60 to 75cm go over in the first Atlantic squall of July, and once they lodge they rot rather than stand back up. A sheltered site or a low fence on the windward side is worth more than anything you do to the soil.
Growing notes
Sow onto bare, freshly raked soil in March, April or early May, or in September for earlier and stronger flowering the following June. Rate is around 1 to 2 grams per square metre. Surface sow, tread it in, and do not cover it: poppy seed in particular needs light and will not come up from under compost.
Do not thin, weed carefully or fuss. A dense stand supports itself better in wind than a thinned one.
Flowering starts about ten to twelve weeks from a spring sowing and runs to the first real gales. Deadheading extends it a little, but the more useful thing is to let some seed drop, then disturb the ground in autumn or the following spring to give it somewhere to germinate.
Once flowering finishes, pull or cut the lot and either dig the ground over or scarify it back to bare earth. Skipping that step is the single reason these mixes fade out, and it is the difference between a display that repeats and one that lasts a single summer.
Common questions
Are cornfield annuals native to Ireland?
Mostly not, strictly speaking. Corn poppy, corn marigold, corn chamomile and corncockle arrived with agriculture thousands of years ago and are counted as archaeophytes rather than true natives, and cornflower is not native to Ireland at all. They are part of the historic Irish farmed landscape and they are genuinely good for pollinators, so a cornfield mix is a reasonable thing to sow in a garden. It is not the right thing to sow into or beside old grassland, a hedgerow bank or anything semi-natural, where a native perennial mix belongs instead.
Why did my cornfield mix disappear after the second year?
Because it is doing exactly what it evolved to do. These are annuals of disturbed arable ground, and their seed needs bare soil and light to germinate. Once a sward of grass and perennials closes over the surface the seed sits dormant instead. To keep the display going, rotavate, dig or scarify the area down to bare earth every spring, and top up with fresh seed every second or third year.
Is corncockle poisonous?
Corncockle is poisonous at every stage and in every part, not only the seed, and it is toxic to livestock generally rather than just poultry, so it matters where the patch goes. Keep it away from anywhere children play, away from grazing ground, and well away from a field boundary, since corncockle appearing in amenity plantings next to farmland has been raised as a genuine complaint by the Irish farming press. It caused real problems historically when it was harvested along with wheat. In a garden setting it is not a reason to avoid the mix, but it is a reason to check whether corncockle is on the species list before sowing it in a school or a run.
More wildflowers to consider
Native Irish Meadow Mix
Open pollinated / Perennial native meadow mix
The mix to choose if you want a permanent meadow that belongs here, and you can wait three years for it.
Growing notes and stockistsPollinator and Bee Mix
Open pollinated / Pollinator mix
Worth sowing on bare ground if the species list is native, but mowing your lawn less often helps Irish bees more.
Growing notes and stockistsShade and Woodland Edge Mix
Open pollinated / Shade and woodland edge mix
For damp shade under a hedge or deciduous trees, where a meadow mix would simply rot away.
Growing notes and stockists