Native Irish Meadow Mix
The mix to choose if you want a permanent meadow that belongs here, and you can wait three years for it.
This is the mix worth spending money on, and the one most worth checking before you buy. A genuine Irish native meadow mix contains only species that grow wild in Ireland, ideally raised from Irish-collected seed, and it is built around perennials that come back stronger every year rather than annuals that put on one show and vanish. The trade-off is patience: it takes two to three years to look like anything.
Quick facts
- Botanical name
- Mixed species
- Type
- Open pollinated
- Category
- Perennial native meadow 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
- 90cm
- Position
- Full sun
- Containers
- Needs open ground
- In flower
- May to August
Sowing and harvest calendar for Native Irish Meadow Mix
Months shaded below are the reliable windows for Irish conditions.
Where to buy Native Irish Meadow 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
Every species in a proper Irish native mix already survives our rainfall, our wind and our mild wet winters without help, because it has been doing so since long before anyone sold it in a packet. That is the whole argument for native seed over a pretty continental blend: nothing in it will be caught out by a wet July or a February gale.
The ecological case is the stronger one. Irish pollinators, and in particular the solitary bees that make up most of our bee species, feed on the plants they evolved alongside. Devil’s-bit scabious, bird’s-foot trefoil, knapweed and red clover are heavily worked here in a way that ornamental annuals are not. Sowing seed into or beside semi-natural ground can also swamp the plants already there. It is worth knowing that the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan goes further than a preference for native seed: it does not recommend sowing wildflower mixes at all, and treats native local provenance seed as an exception for ground with no seed bank left. If your patch is old grassland rather than bare soil, the better answer is to stop mowing it and see what appears.
Growing notes
Sow between late August and October. This is not a preference, it is a requirement for several of the species: yellow rattle, oxeye daisy and devil’s-bit scabious all germinate far better after a winter outdoors, and a spring sowing of this mix routinely disappoints for that reason alone.
Fertility is the whole game. Strip the topsoil if you can, and on no account add compost or manure. On rich ground this mix will still germinate, it will simply be smothered by grass before it flowers.
Expect a green, unimpressive first summer. Cut it back to about 50mm whenever it gets above 250mm that year, removing the clippings. From year two, one cut in early September with the arisings raked off is the entire maintenance regime.
Most of the plants sit between 40 and 90cm, so the meadow lodges in autumn gales if it is left standing too long. September is the month to cut, not October.
Common questions
What species should be in an Irish native meadow mix?
Look for oxeye daisy, common knapweed, bird's-foot trefoil, selfheal, yarrow, red clover, meadow buttercup, ribwort plantain, lady's bedstraw and devil's-bit scabious, with yellow rattle either included or bought separately. All of these grow wild in Ireland. If the list is heavy on cornflower, corn poppy and corncockle then you are looking at an annual cornfield mix under a different name, and if it contains phacelia, cosmos or Californian poppy it is not a native mix at all.
How do I know the seed was actually grown in Ireland?
Ask, because the packet often will not say. Irish provenance is not a legal claim that suppliers must substantiate, and a large share of what is sold here is grown on the continent. Suppliers who collect and grow their own seed in Ireland will tell you so plainly and will usually name the county. If you are sowing beside a hedgerow, old grassland or anything semi-natural, it is worth the extra effort and cost.
Do I need to sow yellow rattle with it?
In almost every Irish garden, yes. Our grass grows for most of the year and grows hard, and without something suppressing it the perennials in this mix will be shaded out before they flower. Sow yellow rattle in the same autumn window, onto soil rather than thatch, and expect to top it up in the second autumn if the first sowing was thin.
More wildflowers to consider
Pollinator 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 stockistsCornfield Annuals Mix
Open pollinated / Annual cornfield mix
The only wildflower mix that delivers in its first summer, but it needs the soil disturbed again every single year.
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