A 'meadow' of cornfield annuals sown in a garden setting (1).

As well as the traditional cornfield annuals of red Poppy, Blue Cornflower and yellow Corn Marigold, all of which you can see in this image, there is a white Umbellifer (probably Ammi majus). The yellow flower with a dark red centre is a North American annual flower, Coreopsis tinctoria. In a cornfield these flowers would traditionally grow as weeds among the cereal crop, which is in effect a type of annual grass. In a garden setting the flowers are sown on their own, without any grass. This kind of effect is easy to achieve, but remember it only lasts for one season, and then you have to remove the dead stems and re-sow for next year. Although these flowers may seed themselves to some extent, some intervention by the gardener will always be necessary to remove weeds and perennial grasses that will try and colonise the site, and to re-sow as necessary to fill the gaps in self-seeding. This kind of seed mix has been developed by an enterprise called Pictorial Meadows based in Sheffield.

© Marc Carlton 2009
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