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Native Origin Irish Wildflower Seed Mixture: 

Range: Meadow Mixtures (Code MM)

Supplied without grass,  Grass seed can be added

Product Name: 

MM05 Peat-lands or Soil with a high peat content

Product Code:  MM05 

Description: 

MM05 offers a choice of cold hardy, colourful species otherwise unavailable anywhere else.

Best in full sun, this mixture is for acid, neutral or alkaline peat soil, lowland or upland. 

Sow MM05 onto limestone marl, gley, clay or subsoil mixed up with the surface peat. 

Suitable sites for this flora can be found across much of Central, 
Coastal and Upland Ireland where the either Deep or Shallow Blanket peat is found. 
After a house is constructed, these peaty soils are often mixed with the underlying gley, 
clay or subsoil. it's such sites that this mix is ideal for.

Seed mixture MM05 will give all our customers in the midlands, 
west and uplands living with a peaty soil the chance to grow a really interesting wild flora. 

This mixture is will grow in soils derived from Blanket Bog or Raised Bog,  
but not on an actual blanket or raised bog purely made of peat and usually wet.

Instead a bespoke peatlands mixture is required and is mainly supplied 
to nature conservation projects by Bord na Mona, Coillte or to wind farms. 
If you require the actual flora of a blanket bog contact us directly for a bespoke seed mixture. 

Species List: 

Bell Heather, Greater and Birdsfoot Trefoil, Bog Asphodel, Bog Cotton, Common figwort, Devil's Bit Scabious, Eyebright, Fleabane*, Foxglove, Broadleaf Plantain,, Lesser Knapweed, Marsh Bedstraw, Marsh Cinquefoil, Marsh ragwort, Meadow Buttercup, Meadow Rue, Meadowsweet, Ox-eye Daisy. Purple Loosestrife, Ragged Robin, Red Bartsia, Red Campion, Red Clover, Red Rattle*,  Ribwort Plantain, Rough Hawksbit, Sorrell, Water Avens, Woundwort, Wild Angelica, Wild Carrot, Wild Valarien, Yarrow, Yellow Flag Iris, Yellow Rattle, 

Redshank,can be added as a nurse crop

MM05 is a general mixture suitable for where the bog is disturbed, 
cut-a-way or the land/soil is made mainly from peat, its ideal for 
where a house and sewage treatment is built close to peaty soil and 
which has been disturbed and is now mixed throughout.

With modern earth moving machines, house builders can infill and 
level a site, scoops of deep peat are dredged to the surface, 
either way the resulting soil will tend towards deep acidic 

peat and will accommodate and offer a home for species 
who don't normally tolerate the surrounding natural pure peat saturated bogland.
Often the site will have a high water table or be saturated, 
a such a site will require specialist 'Bio filters' for sewage treatment.  

We supply this flora to compliment 'reed infiltration beds'  
and to reclaim the sometimes unsightly earthworks of 'Bioflow' treatment systems .

Fields created in areas of blanket bog often have a slightly different ecology
 to the boggy countryside in which they inhabit. Indeed such a site, can be a field,
 inherited from the distant past or created in a day with an earth moving machine, 
either way the resulting soil will tend towards shallow, wet and acidic and 
will accommodate species who don't normally tolerate the surrounding natural ecosystem. 
Often the site will be underlain with water impervious rock such as old red sandstone or granite.
The site may be saturated or well drained but non the less wet, 
either sheltered or exposed and in many cases can be fertile, 

as seaweed or manure may have been added to the soil over the years. 
Whatever the case MM05 provides species which will tolerate these conditions and form a beautiful low maintenance ecology.

MM05 contains annuals which would not normally be found in such sites, but will add first year interest and are intended as a nurse crop in situations that are often hostile to small perennial seedlings, so we add the annuals so you get something in the first year. they also act a a marker for the perennials.

Forestry is displacing Irelands peat land wild plant community, so if you grow MM05 you will be helping the conservation of nature and another generation of plants. 

Seed Mixture Specifications: 
Origin: Native Irish Origin, Wildflower Seed Mixture. 
Suitable for soil type:  All types of soil mixed with deep peat, or pure peat.
Moisture Level: Normal, Moist or Wet
pH range: Best between <4.5 - 6.5
Aspect: Sunny

Life Cycle: Annual / Biennial / Perennial. 
Height Range: <30cm - > 150cm occasionally higher
Flowering Period:  May to late August.

Fertility Range: Will grow on any soil, the less fertile the soil, the less cutting will be required.
Wintergreen: Moderate 
Total number of seeds per gram: 1850  

Sowing Specification:  
Soil Preparation: Create firm, fine tilt on seed bed.
Optimum Sowing Time: Spring, early autumn, when the soil is warm.

Sowing Conditions: Normal, roll or rake into surface to keep out of reach from birds.
Sowing Method: By hand is recommended, if using seed spreaders be careful to insure the small varieties of seed do not drop to the bottom of the seed spreader and get sown all in the one place. Can be Hydrasown. 
Fertiliser: None 

Seed Sowing Rates:  
Normal sowing rate 'without added grass seed':1.5 grams per metre.
High sowing rate 'without added grass seed': Add 3 grams per metre.

Grass seed or nurse crop requirement:

Nurse Crop: No nurse crop is required. 
Grass Seed Requirement: n/a, use Bent and Fescue species, Do not use species of Perennial Rye grass
Sow with or without grasses: Either / with grasses / without grasses
Sowing rate with grasses: 2 to 7 grams per metre depending on the percentage of grass.

If sown without grass seed, this mixture: Will not require a nurse crop.

Morphology:

Life Cycle: Annual / Biennial / Perennial. 
Height Range: <60cm to >180cm 
Flowering Period:  May to August.
Fertility Range: Will grow in any soil
Wintergreen: Partially. 

Design Notes:  MM05 will require an open sward, to allow some species to flourish, if sedges can be encouraged instead of grasses all the better. The presents of heather requires careful cutting in the early years to allow for its establishment. Once established the heather species can be keep low to 12 cm with a general annual cut.

Moss will form on the soil surface which may need occasional raking every few years. DBN does not recommend chemically treating the moss to get ride of it.

Performance:

Peaty soil are difficult if saturated. Seek advice if sowing onto flooded peat
In normal conditions (mainly in early Autumn and Spring) this mix should germinate slowly, but you should see seedlings from 4 - 6 weeks after sowing, from then on, provided the grass or pure wildflower sward is kept open and a 'Thatch' is not allowed develop and smoother the seedlings which will germinate for up to 3 years from the original sowing. 

species will continue to germinate and emerge, through to the third year.
First Year:  

The annuals supplied in this mixture ' may' grow and flower, it depends on what type of peat you have, for the annuals to be successful. 

This mixture requires one cut when finished flowering in year one..

Second Year: In the second year the biennials will also be very colourful. 
If this mixture was not cut in first year, cut and remove foliage in early Spring.
Cut again in July, August or September, depending on when flower finish or the level of weeds that emerge. 

In the third year this meadow mixture will seem to have less flora than the first and second year. Why? 
The perennial species are still young, many will only have germinated in the second season, so flowers will be sparse. However, there should be identifiable foliage and some flowers. If not contact us. 
If the native grass seeds present in your soil grow vigorously, the meadow will require two or three cuts, the first cut in Spring (April/May) and the second cut in July or August, the meadow can again be cut in September if the grasses are still growing strong. 

When should this meadow be established and require one cut?
In the fourth year, when the perennials in the mixture should be flowering on many stems and starting to clump and spread, again if the grass is still vigorous cut in spring and in August of the fourth year. However if the perennials are growing strong there will be no need to cut until July, August or September depending on the fertility and wetness of the soil and the species which have grown.

A wildflower meadow should last many years, provided the wildflower species were correctly established, weeds were controlled and the meadow was cut and the cut material removed and occasional 'Gaps' are created. If not contact DBN.

Persistence if unmanaged: Low
Tolerance of Cutting: Moderate.
General Cutting Time: Mid to end of Summer.
Specific Cutting Time: Wait 3 weeks until after the last flush of flowers fade away, after seeds set.

Disposal of cut materials: Always remove the cuttings, wildflower meadow hay should be removed as soon as possible and not be heaped on site as it will grow mouldy (a health risk).  Meadow cuttings can be spread as compost in sheet mulches around trees and shrubs or composted. 

Management: Control grasses and weeds until well established. Accept any normal non-invasive weeds as they provide cover, once the sward is established, digging, spot spraying or weed wiping can be used to eliminate problem species. 

Control weeds, especially Creeping Buttercup, if Creeping Buttercup is present cut this meadow in May in year two.

Most species in this mixture are 'Browse' resistant by wild animals.

Product Warning: DBN recommends that this mixture is not for human or animal consumption. 

A General Description of Meadow Range: 
Meadow Mixtures are designed to grow on soil in specific situations. 
This range of seed mixture is ideal for those concerned with species suitability, composition and performance to be attractive, encourage wildlife and local biodiversity. If these mixtures are suitable for your situation, they offer good value and if given time, develop into a flora that will persist if properly maintained. 

Your purchase: Contributes to DBN's work of creating crops of Conservation Grade - Native Origin Wildflora. You help us to inform and pay land-owners to manage native species and to assist DBN in handing on our heritage for another generation. 
By growing (some will be difficult) these and all other species, you directly help to conserve national and global Biodiversity and protect wildlife. You should also consider yourself another Irish wildflower grower.