Mid to late September is ideal for planting out wildflower plug plants. Each plug plant will arrive with a cluster of different seedlings emerging, a lucky dip from a wide selection of different varieties, and some of these will quickly flower and re-seed (for next spring), whilst others will get their roots established for next year and then wait out the winter until temperatures rise in spring when they will flower. There will also be several dormant seeds in the plugs and these will germinate early next year.
Another reason autumn is such a good planting time is that, if you are growing in grassy areas, you can cut the grass right down before planting, and then pop the plugs in the ground knowing that they will have little competition from the grass which grows more slowly in autumn and winter. The soil is nice and moist in autumn and this makes it far easier to plant. If you are growing in grassland, we’d recommend cutting the grass as short as you possibly on the day before planting. Remove the grass cuttings (they’ll do well in the compost pile!) and plant up to 50 plugs per square metre, using a trowel or dibber to make holes so that you can push the wildflower plugs into the soil and firm in well.
If you are planting in bare soil or planters, you don’t need to worry about grass, so just plant plugs as normal, approximately 5-10cm apart.
