Happy Fall Y'all! It has sure been busy at my house. No one told me Master Gardening school would be so..well..hard! Sorry I haven't been visiting your blogs lately. I study all the time! And, all of a sudden, it's fall! The temps are cooler, pumpkins are at the markets, as are mums and scarecrows. Love it! In the business of life, I almost forgot that it was "thyme" to plant wildflower seeds. Well, I didn't really forget-but the temperature was so hot here mid September I thought I better wait. I called the Wildseed Farm to verify, and they agreed-"wait for October" they said.
So, as I turned my calender to October yesterday, I realized the time had come. I had to pull up a lot of flowers from this bed around the tree. That was quite a job, both physically and emotionally. The flowers were leggy and looking pretty sad, but they still had blooms on them. I hate, hate to pull up things in bloom, but I did have seeds ready to plant, so I got busy.
Last night I soaked the bonnet seeds, and bright and early this morning I was ready to start scattering. Wildflower seeds must touch the soil, you don't really plant them. After soaking all night, the bluebonnet seeds became plump and felt like tiny little rocks. Very easy to grab a handfull and toss them here and there. I love scattering seeds-makes me know how Johnny Appleseed must have felt! :)
I do have a few rosettes coming up from last year-can you see this little one in front of the rock-but I have so little space to have flowers in the back, I use the beds to plant annuals which makes it hard for the bonnets to re-seed successfully.
I scattered seeds everywhere I could find a bare spot. They may not germinate in all spots, but why not try and hope for spring blooms.
This sunny spot is the corner wildflower bed that has only crazy wild things in it. I scattered bluebonnet seeds, mexican hat, horse mint, standing cypress and indian paintbrush here. In spring, I will add plains coreopsis and ox eye daisies.
I love seed planting day in fall! It teaches me patience, gives me hope for the future, and brings me joy! I can't wait to see what surprises these little seeds will bring me next spring!
"The most noteworthy thing about gardeners is that they are always optimistic, always enterprising, and never satisfied. They always look forward to doing better than they have ever done before!"
Vita Sackville-West
Last fall when I was scattering wildflower seeds, I tossed one (or two-can't remember) packages of Indian Paintbrush. Sadly, only one plant came up. But that one plant has been beautiful and given me lots of happy red flowers! 
I am not sure why I didn't have more paintbrush--I had several last year. Maybe it was the unusual winter, maybe I didn't water the seeds enough, maybe they just didn't want to grow this year--who knows! 
I think this one plant knew it was the only one and responsible for providing lots of spring blooms. It stands tall and proud, and doing a perfect job of providing contrasting red color in with the bluebonnets. And the bluebonnets? 
Just awesome! My how I love spring!
I am so excited--I had to share my excitement with you! You all know wildflowers are my passion. When we travel, I carry a field guide with me and try to spot and identify as many wildflowers as I can. My dream would be to have my own meadow and have it full of wildflowers nodding their heads in the breeze. As it is, I have no meadow, so I devote a corner of my little backyard to wildflowers. And they have started to bloom. (you never know what will happen when you scatter seeds in fall!)
