Wildflowers an option for Colorado gardeners

    Interested in adding some wildflowers to your landscape or your back alley? It is easier than you think. Be sure to purchase native wildflowers such as coneflower or yellow prairie coneflower. To have a complete listing go to our CSU fact sheet on wildflowers in Colorado at https://exten sion.colostate.edu/docs/pubs/garden/07233.pdf. Gaillardia, columbine, flax and beebalm will give you a good mix of blossoming wildflowers all through the season.  Columbine and flax will bloom early. Gaillardia and beebalm will start in early- to mid-summer and go through the fall.
    Here are a couple of options on how to duplicate Mother Nature’s environmental conditions that you can start in March and be ready to spread seed in April. The first option is get a seed flat and fill it with a soilless potting mix. Fill it to the top. Then take your wildflower seed and spread it over the flat as though you were feeding the chickens. Do this a couple of times. Then moisten the soilless potting mix with a spray bottle to achieve a fine spray of water, until water drains out the bottom of the flat. Then take your flat outside and place it under a protected spot away from the wind.  Put it under a deck or someplace where it has some shade and protection but still gets the benefit of the cold. Check on it once a week for watering. It should stay moist but well-drained.

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