I participated in No Mow May and June, and now July. I didn't get many wildflowers but I love the look of the long grass flowing in the wind. Now, there are some large weeds starting to grow. When, and how, should I cut my field back down? If I cut it now, I will invariably stress it by cutting more than 1/3 of its height. And, can I then let it go another several months to have the same look in the fall? How do I encourage wildflowers and limit the less attractive weeds that tend to want to overtake the landscape?

Welcome to the site!

Pics may help.

If the size of your new meadow allows, be absolutely religious about pulling the undesirable weeds before they go to seed. Opposite approach with desirables.

Beautiful area and view!

S o o o o handpulling weeds perhaps not an option...

Understandable chair placement. Overlooking heaven. 💚

Gorgeous pic.
The question is why would anyone ever think that should be mowed...

You should take individual pics of the plants that you are calling weeds.

I've seen people rip out native flowers that once gone are gone forever...

We need to identify the plants that are bothering you... Many of the so-called "weeds" don't produce seed until late in the season, giving a very long window to pull for the compost pile... And... many of those plants have wildlife value.

To answer the original question...
Wildflower meadows are generally cut in the early Spring, before the plants have begun to grow.

Many of our wildflowers are autumn flowering, and we need to allow them to get mature enough for that... Plus all those seedheads provide food for the songbirds through the winter.

Ok, so what do I do with these "weeds"?
Leave them? Pull them (hope not)? Cut the meadow down?

Looks like verbesina and milkweed to me...
Keepers!

Here's a post with verbesina blooms and monarch caterpillars... plus other butterflies, caterpillars and flowers...
https://gardens-in-the-sand.bl...

Of course, most of us know verbesina as "frost flowers"...



Thread on these forums... more info on frost flowers:
The thread "Frostweed Effect" in Gardening for Butterflies, Birds and Bees forum

Yep, I think you nailed it. Thank you.
Stickweed and milkweed.
So, leave them I guess and mow the field down in the late fall or the spring?

I suggest waiting for the end of winter.
At my house, the songbirds eat the verbesina seeds after they mature.
I had to search "stickweed"... I don't usually see that term in relation to verbesina... "wingstem" is more commonly used.

The link (I posted) above did not show common milkweed which you have...
Here's common milkweed with tree frog!

Love the frog!

So what specific plants should be pulled out?

I tend to pull ragweed on sight (hay fever).
I pull horse nettle when I see it (prickers)
I pull nandina when I see it (invasive, kills birds)

Cocklebur would be a good one to pull...

We haven't determined that you have anything that needs to be pulled... Let's concentrate on identifying what you have growing...

Maybe you won't need to worry about pulling anything.

A dream view!! Love it.
Late winter sounds good.
Nature center near here, at one time, was doing a four year rotation on a field, only mowing one third each year.
You might keep a path going though, thru the patts not mowed annually.

That is beautiful! Keep researching/adding nectar plants and butterfly host plants, plants that make seeds that birds like to eat. Year after year, you'll have more butterflies and birds in your yard.

Baby trees are what you would want to pull, or eventually the meadow will be a wooded area. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but that would be the reason you would pull baby trees - if you're trying to keep it a meadow. Annual mowing alone won't kill many saplings, they'll just continue to grow as pollarded entities.

Sally, one of my BIL's does that - a mowed path through his blueberry meadow in ME. When were up there in July, it was great to walk along that path. IDK if the path is in the same spot every year. Probably not.