Wildflower Plants A to Z

Cowslip plants form clusters of bell-shaped, sunny yellow flowers with distinct tubed calyxes. Known for having a sweet and strong scent compared to apricots, and it has a history in folklore, with uses in weddings and other festivities. An easy-to-grow Easter-time treat!

• Type: Perennial 
• Height: 15–30cm.
• Flowers: April-May 
• Soil Requirement: Moist but well-drained
• Light Requirement: Full sun or partial shade
• Natural Habitat: Meadows, woodlands, road verges
• Also known as: Fairy Cup, Key Flower, Luck Flower, Paggles

The beautiful, nodding, bell-shaped blooms of the Columbine flower come in a variety of colours, even bi-coloured, though the most common colour in the wild is a vivid blue-violet, contrasted by a shining stamen the colour of honey, which is attractive to bees and butterflies. A cute cottage classic, perfect for pots, beds and borders, as it’s easy to grow and naturalise, though it dislikes being too dry.

• Type: Perennial 
• Height: 45–60cm
• Flowers: June-July 
• Soil Requirement: Moist but well-drained
• Light Requirement: Full sun or partial shade
• Natural Habitat: Woodlands, roadsides, grasslands
• Also known as: Dove Plant, Lady’s Shoes, Pigeon Foot

Produces rosettes of leaves at the base of the stem leading up to its four pale pink petals. A flower that captures the essence of springtime; it's named because it blooms the same time you'd start to hear a Cuckoo's call. 

• Type: Perennial 
• Height: 30 – 50cm.
• Flowers: April - June
• Soil Requirement: Moist but well-drained
• Light Requirement: Full sun or partial shade
• Natural Habitat: Damp meadows, pond margins, riverbanks
• Also known as: Lady's-Smock, Cuckoo Bread, Mayflower

These soft-looking, bright blue blooms pair perfectly with other fluffy-petalled flowers, especially in yellows and pinks, such as hawk-bit and knapweed. An excellent plant for pollinators; bees and butterflies go baa-rmy for them! Recommended for rockeries and rough meadows, or anywhere with sandy soil. 

• Type: Biennial 
• Height: 20-50cm.
• Flowers: May-September
• Soil Requirement: Well-drained, sandy
• Light Requirement: Full Sun
• Natural Habitat: Grassland, clifftops, coastal areas
• Also known as: Shepherd’s Scabious

A low-growing, creeping beauty that thrives at woodland edges, but also makes for a unique lawn subject- not many other common flowers can compare to these small spikes of azure petals shining in the sun and bringing a little of the blue sky’s beauty down to earth for your garden!

• Type: Perennial  
• Height: 10-20cm.
• Flowers: April-July
• Soil Requirement: Moist but well-drained
• Light Requirement: Full sun or partial shade
• Natural Habitat: Roadsides, woodland, grassland 
• Also known as: Angels’ Eyes, Blue Stars

With a large, feather-like seed head, this tall ornamental tussock grass is perfect for attracting bees and other insects. Uniquely grooved, dark green leaves that form stiff rough clumps that form dense tufts that develop into distinctive tussocks.

• Type: Perennial
• Height: 30-120cm
• Flowers: June-August
• Soil requirement: Wet, poorly drained 
• Light requirement: Partial sun and shade
• Natural habitat: Marshy fields, rough grassland and woodland
• Also known as: Tussock Grass

Much like the wild mignonette, this tall and robust spire of fresh-looking, yellow-green petals adds a vibrant energy to a wild meadow as its verdant, branching stems of narrow leaves shoot up to the sky! Perfect for pollinators, and its colours can help bring nature back to a struggling spot as it tolerates poor soil.

• Type: Biennial  
• Height: 100-150cm.
• Flowers: May-October 
• Soil Requirement: Well-drained
• Light Requirement: Full sun
• Natural Habitat: Waste ground, roadsides, quarries.
• Also known as: Dyer’s Rocket, Dutch Pink, Jerusalem Ash

An amazing addition to meadows, herb gardens and even lawns! There’s so much to love about this lacy cluster of feathery leaves and florets in white, pink and creamy yellow, we barely know where to start: it's exceptionally hardy, has a powerful aroma, and even outside of the garden, it’s been prized in herbalism for a staggeringly long time- it’s named after its role in Greek legend where the hero Achilles supposedly used it to treat his wounds.

• Type: Perennial  
• Height: 40-55cm.
• Flowers: June-October 
• Soil Requirement: Well-drained
• Light Requirement: Full sun
• Natural Habitat: Grassland, coastal areas, waste land
• Also known as: Lace Plant, Savory Tea, Thousand-Leaf

These climbing woodland legumes have an earnest and delicate charm not seen in others of its kind: its small, two-tone, pea-like petals in rich pink and purple look a bit like butterflies, which may be why they're so attractive to pollinators. 

• Type: Annual
• Height: 45–75cm. 
• Flowers: June-September
• Soil Requirement: Well-drained
• Light Requirement: Full sun
• Natural Habitat: Grasslands, verges, coastal areas
• Also known as: Fetch, Lintels

Here’s the perfect plant for those who want a bright burst of colour lasting late into autumn! The Common Toadflax bears snapdragon-like flowers with pale, buttery outer petals and golden-orange centres; complimenting the palette of summer spirit as well as falling leaves.

• Type: Perennial  
• Height: 30-60cm.
• Flowers: July-October
• Soil Requirement: Well-drained
• Light Requirement: Full sun or partial shade
• Natural Habitat: Hedgerows, meadows, waste ground
• Also known as: Bread And Butter, False Flax, Jacob’s Ladder

The violet and royal blue petals that these soaring spires of petals bear are just the beginning of this flighty flora's beautiful oddities: blooming with longer, feathery-looking flowers, and even the familiar seed pods it shares with others in the legume family ripen into a deep black colour. A quirky and attractive climbing plant which does its best when planted with other tall flora to support it. 

• Type: Perennial
• Height: 60–120cm. 
• Flowers: June-August
• Soil Requirement: Well-drained
• Light Requirement: Full sun
• Natural Habitat: Hedgerows, river banks, woodlands
• Also known as: Bird Vetch, Canada Pea, Tine Grass

Wallflowers are associated with shyness today, but these brightly-coloured creepers in golden-yellow, amber and brick red make a bold statement in full bloom. These sweetly-scented plants are amazing as ornaments, adding a mysterious sylvan style to a cottage garden as they clamber across rockeries and walls.

• Type: Biennial  
• Height: 22-45cm.
• Flowers: March-April 
• Soil Requirement: Well-drained
• Light Requirement: Full sun
• Natural Habitat: Waste ground, cliffsides, quarries.
• Also known as: Bleeding Heart, Bloody Warrior, Yellow Gilliflower

Produces whorls of beetroot-coloured blooms with white markings on a hairy, crimson-tinted stem. As its name may suggest, it used to have uses in herbalism, and in the garden it’s quite popular with pollinators. 

• Type: Perennial  
• Height: 30-90cm.
• Flowers: June-September 
• Soil Requirement: Well-drained
• Light Requirement: Partial shade
• Natural Habitat: Woodlands, scrublands, verges.
• Also known as: Hedge Stachys, Red Archangel

The Creeping Buttercup has classic charm, with glossy yellow, five-petalled flowers on short stems covered with fine hairs. A natural attractant for pollinators, and it adds a wonderful golden glow to lawns, paths, and spots with loamy soil.

• Type: Perennial 
• Height: 20-50cm. 
• Flowers: May-September 
• Soil Requirement: Moist
• Light Requirement: Full sun or partial shade
• Natural Habitat: Damp grasslands, gardens, pastures
• Also known as: Lantern Leaves, Ram's Claws, Sit-Fast

A hardy scrambling wildflower whose bright buttery-yellow, pea-like blooms are well-contrasted by its black ripe seed pods. A magnificent meadow addition which benefits bees and butterflies, and adds a certain shine to shady spots.

• Type: Perennial  
• Height: 50-100cm.
• Flowers: May-August 
• Soil Requirement: Well-drained
• Light Requirement: Full sun or partial shade
• Natural Habitat: Grassland, roadside verges, waste ground
• Also known as: Angle Berries, Lady’s Fingers, Meadow Pea

Scarlet, saucer-shaped, 4-petalled flowers used across the country and beyond as a symbol of remembrance for soldiers lost in the Great War. A hardy annual that self-seeds readily, its vibrant colours are a valuable addition for wild meadows, beds, borders and cottage gardens.

• Type: Annual  
• Height: 30-60cm. 
• Flowers: May-July 
• Soil Requirement: Well-drained
• Light Requirement: Full sun
• Natural Habitat: Grasslands, farmland, roadsides
• Also known as: Blind-Eyes, Flanders Poppy, Headache Plant

Imagine a midsummer meadow rife with the Meadow Clary’s tall-growing spikes of striking indigo flowers! Though they’re now a rare sight in the wild, this handsome and hardy clump-growing plant is a sight to behold, on its own or at the back of a border. Noted for its soft foliage, which is aromatic when crushed.

• Type: Perennial 
• Height: 80–100cm.
• Flowers: May-August 
• Soil Requirement: Well-drained
• Light Requirement: Full sun
• Natural Habitat: Dry grassland, hay meadows, grassy paths 
• Also known as: Meadow Sage

Roses are red, and you already knew of the Violet’s namesake shade of purplish-blue. This five-petalled flower’s beauty is well known, and in sun or in shade, it’s quite easily grown. It looks magical decorating the edge of a woodland garden, or beneath a small hedge- but this plant’s so simple, it’s easy to style it; for those who want blue, it just must be the Violet!

• Type: Perennial 
• Height: 5-10cm.
• Flowers: April-June 
• Soil Requirement: Well-drained
• Light Requirement: Full sun to full shade
• Natural Habitat: Grassland, woodland, hedgerows
• Also known as: Wood Violet

These famous five-petalled flowers are so beloved that they’ve named their own colour after their beautiful purple colouration. Not only that, but they’re shade-tolerant, making them the perfect plant to sweeten woodland gardens or under hedges, especially in contrast to other famous springtime flora, such as the primrose. A simple flower that’s easy to mix with other meadows, with a wonderful sweet scent which helps to bring in butterflies!

• Type: Perennial  
• Height: 5-10cm.
• Flowers: March-April 
• Soil Requirement: Moist or well-drained
• Light Requirement: Full sun to full shade
• Natural Habitat: Grassland, woodland, hedgerows
• Also known as: Florist’s Violet, Sweet Pansy

White Deadnettle has pretty white flowers permeated with green, which appear in intervals along the stem in clusters. This nettle doesn't sting- in fact, it's a very sweet flower, which makes for a great early nectar and pollen source for bees, and its young heart shaped leaves can be used in salads or cooked.

• Type: Perennial
• Height: 15-30cm
• Flowers: March - December
• Soil requirement: Moist or well-drained
• Light requirement: Full sun to partial shade
• Natural habitat: Most of the UK apart from the far North, grassland, woodland, roadsides
• Also known as: Bee Nettle, Snake Flower, White Archangel

Designed specifically to produce yellow rattle plants easily and quickly. Grown from our own quality-assured, fresh, UK native seed, our yellow rattle plugs are ready to be planted in your garden or meadow.

Yellow rattle is a surprisingly musical meadow flower and a must for a wildflower garden: as a semi-parasitic plant, it requires robust neighbour plants like grasses and legumes, but also acts as a watchdog against vigorous weeds.. That's on top of the beauty of its golden, bell-shaped flowers, complete with a charming 'chime' as its ripened seed pods rattle in the breeze.

Our yellow rattle plug plants are grown from high-quality, British seed from wild meadow collections, and arrive ready to be planted complete with the essential meadow grasses. Check back in late 2024 to order your yellow rattle plants for delivery in spring 2025, or view our yellow rattle seeds.

• Type: Annual
• Height: 20–50cm. 
• Flowers: May-September
• Soil Requirement: Moist or well-drained
• Light Requirement: Full sun
• Natural Habitat: Grassland, meadows
• Also known as: Corn Rattle, Hay Rattle, Penny Grass

Perhaps named for its spiky, orange-and-bronze tinted flower heads, there’s no mistaking the sedge’s characteristic fresh green tint and long, slender leaves. Best planted in heavy soil or slightly submerged in water to create a vibrant display at the water’s edge and benefit the wildlife. 

• Type: Perennial  
• Height: 60-90cm.
• Flowers: June-July 
• Soil Requirement: Moist
• Light Requirement: Full sun or partial shade
• Natural Habitat: Marshes, river banks, ditches

This dainty-looking globe flower produces an intricate pattern of bluish-lilac petals: the innermost flower, a soft-looking cluster of miniature florets, is framed by long and papery outer florets! A magical addition to a meadow, especially when mixed with other light-coloured wildflowers.

• Type: Perennial
• Height: 30–90cm.
• Flowers: July-September
• Soil Requirement: Well-drained
• Light Requirement: Full sun
• Natural Habitat: Grasslands, verges
• Also known as: Black Soap, Egyptian Rose, Lady’s Cushion

What else is there to say about the dainty azure arcs of the beloved Bluebell? Though they take several years to develop from seed, fully grown bluebells naturalise quickly and can multiply over time, leaving your garden awash and aglow with the famous fairy-tale flora! In addition, Bluebells can rarely grow in pink and white.

• Type: Perennial 
• Height: 30–60cm.
• Flowers: April-June 
• Soil Requirement: Well-drained
• Light Requirement: Partial shade
• Natural Habitat: Woodlands, hedge banks 
• Also known as: Bell Bottle, Cuckoo’s Boots, Witch’s Thimbles