Wildflower Plants A to Z

True nature-lovers can give little bit back to nature with this rugged and robust meadow plant. The cream-coloured anthers that give colour to the Ribwort Plantain's spikes of sharp umber petals also serve as a vital food source for pollinators and other animals. A good addition to meadows that's easy to naturalise.

• Type: Perennial
• Height: 60-90cm. 
• Flowers: April-September
• Soil Requirement: Well-Drained
• Light Requirement: Full or partial shade
• Natural Habitat: Grasslands, roadsides
• Also known as: Black Jack, Hen Plant, Ribgrass

So-named for its feathery, forked flowers in flamingo pink, we recommend these raggedy riches for a lot of reasons. Planted in a marshy spot, these bright bursts of streaming pink petals will help to bring in bees and butterflies! 

• Type: Perennial  
• Height: 30-60cm.
• Flowers: May-July 
• Soil Requirement: Moist
• Light Requirement: Full sun or partial shade
• Natural Habitat: Woodland, wetlands
• Also known as: Cuckoo Hood, Meadow Pink, Wild William

A creeping perennial which produces pink and white, pea-like petals, with equally-appealing and hardy hairy foliage with toothed leaves. An ideal meadow plant which prefers sandy soil and blooms in late summer, which also attracts bees and butterflies. 

• Type: Perennial 
• Height: 30-60cm.
• Flowers: July-September
• Soil Requirement: Well-drained
• Light Requirement: Full sun
• Natural Habitat: Grassland, coastal areas
• Also known as: Cammock, Land Whin, Stay-Plough

A shrub-like perennial that's usually found in infertile meadows and grasslands that compliments other species such as Vetch, Betony and Knapweed. Bold, red-pink, delicate flowers on erect, spiny stems. 

• Type: Perennial
• Height: 40-50cm
• Flowers: July-September
• Soil requirement: Natural-acidic
• Light requirement: Full sun or partial shade
• Natural habitat: Grassland, meadows, roadsides
• Also known as: Women's War, Plough Tail 

The lilac-pink bracts of the Clary Sage certainly are a sight for sore eyes! Not only that, but its heart-shaped foliage is famously aromatic to the point where it’s frequently used in aromatherapy, along other medicinal uses the herb’s seen throughout the years.

• Type: Biennial  
• Height: 60-100cm.
• Flowers: March-September 
• Soil Requirement: Well-drained
• Light Requirement: Full sun
• Natural Habitat: Grassland, coastal areas
• Also known as: Clear-Eye, See-Bright

Though the Wood Sage’s crinkly foliage has a more subtle scent than some of its cousins, this sublime specimen has n unusual beauty, bearing dark burgundy stems and stamens contrasted by cream-coloured petals with a large lower lip, making it look like a spoonful of sugar- and it’s sure to add that little extra bit of sweetness to stone gardens and hedgerows.

• Type: Perennial
• Height: 30–50cm. 
• Flowers: July-September
• Soil Requirement: Well-drained
• Light Requirement: Partial shade
• Natural Habitat: Woodland, heathland, coasts
• Also known as: Garlic Sage, Hind Heal

Named for its serrated, saw-like leaves, these tall-growing and hardy plants are a relative of the daisy, which you’d hardly believe from their violet, thistle-like flowers. They make a sharp statement in a wild meadow! 

• Type: Perennial
• Height: 70–120cm. 
• Flowers: July-September
• Soil Requirement: Well-drained, chalky
• Light Requirement: Full Sun or partial shade
• Natural Habitat: Meadows, Forest edges
• Also known as: Dyer's Plumeless Saw-Wort

For those looking for something truly unique, the Burnet Saxifrage is one in a million: bearing thin branches of miniature, crystal-white floral umbels like snowflakes, as well as highly variable foliage, ranging from thin and sharp to short and toothed.  It’s easy to naturalise, and its simple colouration makes it a suitable addition to any arrangement.

• Type: Perennial
• Height: 50–100cm.
• Flowers: May-September
• Soil Requirement: Moist but well-drained
• Light Requirement: Sun or partial shade
• Natural Habitat: Grassland, heathland
• Also known as: Lesser Burnet

Named after from its shallow roots, said to have been bitten short in folklore, the Devil’s Bit Scabious is a devilishly good addition to a loamy spot in the garden. Produces rounded, purple-blue ‘pincushion’ flower heads on upright stems. A hardy and alluring plant which attracts bees and butterflies.

• Type: Perennial
• Height: 50–80cm. 
• Flowers: June-September
• Soil Requirement: Moist but well-drained
• Light Requirement: Sun or partial shade
• Natural Habitat: Bogs, woodland, heathlands
• Also known as: Blue Bonnets, Bobby Bright Buttons, Fore-Bit

Though smaller than certain other scabious, these compact, cluster-growing flowers are best suited for complimenting beds and borders rather than taking centre stage, whilst still bearing the hardiness and pretty, periwinkle blue florets of its brethren. In fact, the Small Scabious bears five-petalled florets rather than the regular four- sometimes, it’s the little things that matter.

• Type: Perennial
• Height: 60–70cm. 
• Flowers: July-August
• Soil Requirement: Well-drained, chalky
• Light Requirement: Full sun
• Natural Habitat: Grasslands, verges
• Also known as: Curl-Doddy, Lilac-Flowered Scabious

The Cyperus Sedge produces drooping, yellow-green tufted flowers, which are well-suited for pond margins for those who want a super lush and lively look. Hardy and tall-growing, the blade-like leaves of this sedge provide important cover for waterside wildlife.

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

These branches of pearly-white petals, framing fuzzy cream florets, are nothing to sneeze at! Named for its strong scent, its leaves can also be used to repel harmful insects (though it’s still perfect for pollinators), and it’s sometimes used as a herbal remedy. Hardy and drought-resistant.

• Type: Perennial 
• Height: 25-50cm.
• Flowers: July-September
• Soil Requirement: Moist but well-drained
• Light Requirement: Full sun or partial shade
• Natural Habitat: Marshes, water margins
• Also known as: Ball Of Snow, Goosetongue, Seven Years’ Love

The subtly sweet-scented Soapwort was named as it can be used to make soap, but its clusters of pristine white and pale pink petals bring to mind a bubble bath, washing up beds and borders as it self-seeds easily. A very useful and hardy herb to have around! Avoid placing near fish ponds.

• Type: Perennial 
• Height: 50-70cm.
• Flowers: June-September
• Soil Requirement: Moist but well-drained
• Light Requirement: Full sun
• Natural Habitat: Footpaths, river banks, hedges
• Also known as: Boston Pink, Jill-Run-By-The-Street, World’s Wonder

These spikes of small, scarlet-and-fuschia flowers really spice up a wildmeadow: not only that, they bring in bees and self-seed with little fuss, making them the perfect plant to pepper in! Their attractive arrow-shapes leaves also taste tart when eaten.

• Type: Perennial
• Height: 15–60cm. 
• Flowers: May-August
• Soil Requirement: Well-drained
• Light Requirement: Full sun 
• Natural Habitat: Grasslands, woodlands, verges
• Also known as: Sour Ducks, Vinegar Plant

A shorter, self-seeding sorrel which bears the same upright, slender stems of scarlet and hot pink petals as its counterparts. Its small but vivid flowers add a lot of flavour to a garden, and perhaps even more flavourful are its sword-shaped basal leaves, which can even be used in making food!

• Type: Perennial
• Height: 7–25cm. 
• Flowers: May-August
• Soil Requirement: Well-drained, acidic
• Light Requirement: Full sun 
• Natural Habitat: Grasslands, woodlands, verges
• Also known as: Sour Weed

Produces dense spikes of miniature florets in regal blues and violets, alongside long, sharp leaves with a subtle silver tint. The sky’s the limit with these showy summer wildflowers: recommended for rockeries and brilliant in borders, this is a versatile and low-maintenance flower that’s practically made for a cottage garden.

• Type: Perennial  
• Height: 30-60cm.
• Flowers: July-September
• Soil Requirement: Well-drained
• Light Requirement: Full sun
• Natural Habitat: Calcareous rocks and soils, grasslands

Distinguished by its namesake hairy leaves and stem as well as the peppered dark gland across their sepals, this specific specie of St. John’s Wort grows taller and with larger, pale-yellow flowers in clustered spikes. A fickle flower that prefers sunny, calciferous soils unlike the common St. John’s Wort, but a garden or grove decorated with these glorious golden-petalled pillars is a rich enough reward.

• Type: Perennial  
• Height: 60-100cm.
• Flowers: July-August
• Soil Requirement: Moist but well-drained
• Light Requirement: Full sun
• Natural Habitat: Open forests, damp grasslands 

Produces three-leaved rosettes of broad and silky foliage. A brilliant bloom for beginners, as it’s ideal for small pots and baskets, with its daisy-like white flowers with golden centres providing a simple, earthy beauty- and that’s just the appetiser before it bears its beloved, juicy red fruits in the late summer!

• Type: Perennial  
• Height: 20-50cm.
• Flowers: April-June
• Soil Requirement: Moist but well-drained
• Light Requirement: Full Sun
• Natural Habitat: Open woodlands, grasslands
• Also known as: Alpine Strawberry

These medium-to-tall-growing plants are unique both for their clusters of button-like blooms the colour of butter and their aromatic, ferny leaves which can even be used as an excellent deterrent for pests! Eccentric and an earnest self-seeder, those cautious of the tansy can grow them in a container, but in beds and borders, it attracts bees and butterflies, and even improves the soil by adding potassium!

• Type: Perennial  
• Height: 30-90cm.
• Flowers: July-September
• Soil Requirement: Well-drained
• Light Requirement: Full Sun
• Natural Habitat: Wetlands, rough grassland, verges
• Also known as: Buttonweed, Hind-Heal, Immortality

Grows as a spiky spherical flower head coloured by bands of lavender florets. An ideal meadow plant which naturalises well and grows tall, and its seed heads are known to attract the wildlife. All in all, it sure does have a sharp sense of style!

• Type: Bienniel
• Height: 60–200cm. 
• Flowers: July-August
• Soil Requirement: Well-drained or moist
• Light Requirement: Full sun or partial shade
• Natural Habitat: Grasslands, river banks, woodlands
• Also known as: Adam’s Flannel, Shepherd’s Staff, Venus’ Basin

Bunches of rounded, pink flowers provide an abundant supply of pollen and nectar for bees and other pollinators. Commonly found on coastal cliffs, beaches and sandunes all around the UK, these leaves are closely packed together to save moisture in the salt-laden sea air. 

• Type: Perennial
• Height: 5-22cm
• Flowers: May to September
• Soil requirement: Sandy, well-drained
• Light requirement: Full sun 
• Natural habitat: Coastal cliffs, grassland, salt marshes, rock gardens 
• Also known as: Sea Thrift, Sea Pink, Cliff Clover

For any of our customers curious about an aromatic and attractive herb that’s as pretty as it is useful and easy-to-grow… read on, it’s about thyme! These low-growing clusters of pale pink and purple petals are well-known for their common culinary use, but they make for a gorgeous ground covering which require very little fuss for the multicoloured majesty they produce. Recommended for rockeries.

• Type: Perennial  
• Height: 10-20cm.
• Flowers: June-September
• Soil Requirement: Well-drained
• Light Requirement: Full Sun
• Natural Habitat: Coasts, rocky habitats, moors
• Also known as: Creeping Thyme, Elfin Thyme, Mother Of Thyme

These yellow-and-orange clusters of pea-like flowers bring some fanciful flowers to your garden, but in a more down-to-earth way: hardy and low-growing, this meadow plant is an important source of nectar to certain pollinators, and its warm colouration adds a distinct summertime shine to lawns and wild gardens.

• Type: Perennial  
• Height: 15-20cm.
• Flowers: May-October
• Soil Requirement: Well-drained
• Light Requirement: Full sun
• Natural Habitat: Meadows, roadsides, grasslands
• Also known as: Eggs and Bacon, Cheesecake Grass, Lamb’s Toes

Bearing larger flowers and a taller, stouter stem, the Greater Bird’s-Foot Trefoil may is a vastly different flower to its siblings, with its glamorous, golden pea-like flowers growing in bunched whorls at the end of branches, as well as having darker foliage and a preference for damp soil.

• Type: Perennial  
• Height: 30-45cm.
• Flowers: June-August
• Soil Requirement: Moist
• Light Requirement: Full sun
• Natural Habitat: Wetlands, ditches, riversides 
• Also known as: Large Bird’s-Foot Trefoil