I started a wildflower meadow this year as described in an earlier post:

The thread "Is This a Weed or Flower Which Has Not Yet flowered ??" in Wildflowers forum

I now realize that many of the plants I thought were weeds are in fact later blooming types such as coreopsis and cosmos. Thanks to you fine people I did not pull up all my yet to bloom plants thinking they were weeds.

Now I have a similar issue:

I see in many parts of my meadow there s an abundance of grasses. Not ornamental but what could be called crabgrass and a weed common to my parts known as Florida pusley, I believe it is also known as perslane.

Prior to planting I did in fact prepare the soil in recommended fashion and took the extra step of waiting a few weeks so I could hand pull any weeds which appeared.

In general I am happy with my meadow but wonder if it is normal" to have so many weeds such as pusley and crabgrass?

I suppose in nature a meadow does in fact contain it's share of weeds but I was hoping to have a virtual carpet of wildflowers such as one sees on the roadside here in N. central Florida.

In future years is it more likely my perennials and self seeding annuals will become more abundant or need I be concerned that the grasses and the pusley will take over my meadow?

Should I over seed this fall to increase number of wild flowers or just let mother nature do her thing.

In a couple of the attached pics you can clearly see the grasses I speak of as well as the yet to bloom wildflowers. Again so happy I did not pull these out thinking they were weeds !!

Thanks all.

Aren't wild flowers, by definition, also weeds? In a meadow, I don't think you get to discriminate between garden flowers and plants that grow naturally. You can certainly toss a few more flowering varieties of weed around, but you can't stop the hardier and more aggressive wild grass taking over. The good news is, there will be more flowers next year and the year after, as these plants get established and sow their own seeds.

Serpent said: In a meadow, I don't think you get to discriminate between garden flowers and plants that grow naturally.

I've seen people weed their meadows... To the point of not having anything.

As hard as I struggle to teach people specific plants that it's ok to pull... Seems like they always branch out and pull stuff that I consider desirable.

One problem is that there are a lot of look alike plants... For example... I have a cosmos that looks very similar to ragweed...

Weeds will take over quickly.
A large part of why they are called weeds to begin with is because they are faster growers, bigger seed producers etc. allowing them to better compete for the available resources.

BigBill said: Weeds will take over quickly.
A large part of why they are called weeds to begin with is because they are faster growers, bigger seed producers etc. allowing them to better compete for the available resources.

So if the weeds take over how does one maintain or better still increase number of wildflowers in a meadow?

I would think in a couple of years all you would have is weeds.

I think of the roadside stands of wildflowers were I live and they seem to increase every year as opposed to dwindling

Is it necessary to over seed every year? That could get expensive !!

Well it is either a case of overseeding or picking an open breezy area. Here along the highways and byways, so many of the interstate meadows are in open, breezy areas. Maybe the weed seeds just blow right past?
I can't image having to weed these areas often in an effort to give the flowers a competitive edge.
Or maybe better still we need to select flowers that are as aggressive as the weeds!?

It's simpler to learn a few of the worst offenders. Remove those few and the majority of plants won't really need all that much concern.
Much easier to learn those few plants than to get caught in the trap of weeding out anything you don't recognize.
Too many stories abound of people weeding out entire rows of stuff because they didn't recognize it at the time...
Remember what I said about flowers that look like the stuff that you are removing... Much better to leave stuff until it flowers before yanking...
All too familiar of story for people to destroy rare plants, thinking they are spraying "weeds".
When the plant flowers, identification will be much more accurate.
Post pictures here for a certain identification.

stone said: It's simpler to learn a few of the worst offenders. Remove those few and the majority of plants won't really need all that much concern.
Much easier to learn those few plants than to get caught in the trap of weeding out anything you don't recognize.
Too many stories abound of people weeding out entire rows of stuff because they didn't recognize it at the time...
Remember what I said about flowers that look like the stuff that you are removing... Much better to leave stuff until it flowers before yanking...
All too familiar of story for people to destroy rare plants, thinking they are spraying "weeds".
When the plant flowers, identification will be much more accurate.
Post pictures here for a certain identification.

I get it. I almost pulled out a large number of late blooming Cosmos thinking they were something like ragweed. Glad I did not yank them out.

Being new to this when I did not see flowers after a couple of months I assumed the flowerless plants were weeds.

I totally forgot that wildflowers bloom at different times and also that perennials may not flower the first year.

I am learning to be patent.

I would collect seeds from the wildflowers and then only pull ''known''weeds , shake the soil off the roots and drop a couple seeds in the fresh disturbed soil .You have a better chance of flowers than more weeds
I put an assortment of collected seeds in a herb shaker with a bit of sand (some seeds are so very small ) carry it in my pocket when pulling weeds .

as stone and gardengus say, you CAN learn to ID your more agressive and less desired plants at different stages, selectively pull those. Just takes persistence.

I'd bet that fields and roadside "wildflower" stands are plenty 'weedy' if one really examined them. It's just that the seasonal bloom of a few plants makes us say Wow and think of them as nice.

By nature, wildflowers are not as tidy and plush as garden flowers. To have them, you will have to tolerate the "unkept" appearance of the meadow.