Native Plants

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Saturday - February 07, 2015

From: Riverside, AL
Region: Southeast
Topic: Planting, Grasses or Grass-like, Herbs/Forbs
Title: Planting wildflowers and ryegrass in RIverside AL
Answered by: Jimmy Mills

QUESTION:

Love the name, enjoyed a visit last spring. We repaired a retaining wall about 300 ft. and want to plant wildflowers on a strip 5 ft wide. Slope gentle to 1 in 3.5. Hauled in topsoil for fill. Can we plant wildflowers now (late Jan) with annual rye to help erosion until flowers get established? Or do you have another suggestion? Zone 7, last frost early April, lot of spring rain normal. Thanks

ANSWER:

This is a project that might have been better if started in the Fall. First I will share some links with information about annual rye and also some links about seed germination.

Annual ryegrass is a cool season grass that does best when planted in the fall and grows until the heat of summer. (Previous answer SP #9900) refers to answer SP #2933 which has other good links.

Here is a link to ryegrasses.com that explains the different kinds of ryegrass.

Here is a link to University of Vermont Extension talking about seed germination

These links to Native American Seed Company tell how to plant Native seed and grow Native wild flowers. The third article talks about growing native plants particularly on slopes with recommended species.