mowing for wild flowers

[marvella]

this part of the country is known for the abundant number and types of wild flowers. it is one of the most biodiverse places in the world, next to a rain forest.

my question is if any one knows about how to mow to promote wild flower growth? or where to begin looking for that information?

max patch mountain on the AT at the TN/ NC line is mowed like that. they mow only at certain seasons so native plants have time to bloom and reseed. i tried to find out how to contact them, or how they do it, but came up with nada.

let me also say that this county is 1/3 protected federal land and much of the rest is undeveloped. we are also a gateway community to a national park. to maintain the beauty is a great incentive for tourism for those that are looking to get away from it all, instead of hustel and bustle.

my friend and i are hoping that if we come up with a feasible mowing plan for the county, they will go for it, espcially if it saves them some money.

any help or advice is appreciated!

[TurnerHill]

Not in your area, so take this with a grain of salt.

But I have noticed that native wildflowers here come back better when the fields have been burned off, not mowed.

[big rockpile]

Originally Posted by TurnerHill

Not in your area, so take this with a grain of salt.

But I have noticed that native wildflowers here come back better when the fields have been burned off, not mowed.

I was going to say the same fire brings on Wild Flowers.









big rockpile

[ronbre]

I plant a lot of wildflowers..they usually go to seed here in Michigan in about the end of July or first part of August..which would mean you would mow when it is time for the seed to be spread..right???

I just gather the seed and spread it where i want it..myself..but mowing might give the seed a better chance to sprout.

[marvella]

Originally Posted by Wind in Her Hair

in Texas, LadyBird Johnson (for all you young whippernsappers -she was a First Lady back before Al Gore invented the Internet ) was instrumental in beautifying the immense Texas highways and byways with wildflower propogation and seed harvesting.

Check with the Texas Department of Highways and see if they have the resources you seek . They are quite deliberate in their mowing of the highways and have huge vaccuum cleaners that harvest wildflower seed for future plantings. I'll bet they'll know.

thank you, wihh. that's the kind of info i'm looking for. i do remeber lady bird. many interstates have lovely displays due to her work.

setting fire to the roadsides, while it may work, will not go over well with local government.:-)

[mooman]

Will you be purchasing seed or just letting what's there grow? I'm not familiar with the area you decribed but have seen the wildflowers along the roadsides in southern NC. I'm not sure, but I would bet those are a carefully selected mix of native grasses and wildflowers that all bloom around the same time. The land was most likely treated with herbicide, plowed and then seeded with the mix. I've seen them mowing these areas as soon as the flowers had gone to seed. I've not seen them collecting it, but would not be surprised. Good seed is VERY expensive, at least for me, for a county budget probably not.

http://www.ernstseed.com/
These are the people to ask!

It's where I got my seed. They are a good honest family business that KNOWS it's native plants. I bet if you chat them up, maybe order some seeds for the first mile into town they would tell you exactly how to encourage wildflowers on the other ### miles of road in the county

In thier catalog they also suggest periodic burning of wildflower meadows to eliminate woody species and burn off annual "weed" seeds. I will be burning mine this spring but for county roads you would probably want to do it in the fall to discourage wildlife from gathering on the roadsides and to increase visibility around turns. After that they would just mow them once a year in the fall and burn periodically to discourage shrubs and weeds.

I think if you just let what was there grow, you would end up with mostly "weeds". Stuff blooming at different times throughout the year, annuals, shrubs. I think it would look great and save a lot of gas but society disagrees.

[marvella]

let me be clear- there is no such thing as a weed.:-)

there are huge numbers of wild flowers already growing. it is the most biodiverse place in the country. something is blooming almost year round.

what we hope to figure out is a way that the county can mow less and let the wildflowers be. for example, there is a stunning display of day lilies for about 1/4 mile long in front of my place. really spectacular. the county came by about a week before bloom time and mowed them all down, at least what was in the right of way. another example- in the spring, we don't just have trillium that blooms but 5 different kinds of trillium, some of them rare and endangered. yep, mowed down.

i mentioned max patch in the OP. as far as i know they never burn it, just mow on a schedule that promotes wild flower growth.

we would like to be able to figure out a mowing schedule that would let the flowers (weeds) bloom before mowing them down. i'd say we'd have to designate different areas for different flowers. right now we are just looking for as much information as we can find.