With a garden, we bring a piece of pure nature into our own four walls - or so we think.
 
Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that!
The typical garden, filled with plants that garden centers and hardware stores generally offer, is essentially a long way from being a truly natural habitat.
 
Take a close look around your garden. Cosmos grow next to delphiniums, hydrangeas are overshadowed by night violets, tulips and peonies announce the arrival of summer and so on and so forth. All of these wonderful flowering beauties (which I also have in my garden, of course!) actually come from far away. They left their original habitat a long time ago and emigrated - or rather, were transported by human hands to settle in our gardens next to their completely foreign colleagues. And that's fine and it's living diversity in our beds.
Mexico blooms next to Sicily, the Caucasus next to Argentina, Holland next to East Asia – it blooms all around the world.
Cheek to cheek: Southern Europe with Argentina and China. And all of this in Bavaria.
 
Preserving and promoting native wildflowers
However, despite this wonderful community of different nationalities, we should not completely lose sight of the native plants. Not for patriotic reasons, but because nature is actually the best gardener. It knows which of its creatures have which needs, which thrives best in the sun or in the shade, which need sandy or loamy soil. And it also knows who gets along best with whom and who can be useful where.
 
 
Photo: Sonja Bannick
The native purple loosestrife
 
Native species have settled here without human intervention and can ensure their survival on their own. Over the centuries, they have adapted perfectly to their natural environment and play an important role in the cycle of nature as a source of food for insects, bees, butterflies and other creatures.
 
Unfortunately, many native plant species* are now threatened with extinction due to the use of pesticides, the sealing of areas and the impoverishment of landscapes - and this in turn threatens our colorful diversity of wildlife.
 
According to NABU, the area of ​​all German gardens is roughly equivalent to the total area of ​​German nature reserves. This means that we are actually obliged to give native species space in our gardens again. They have another unbeatable advantage: they are much easier to care for, more robust and less demanding than their friends from faraway countries and are happy to mingle with the cosmopolitans.
 
HERE you will find a suitably compiled seed mixture of 9 different perennial varieties. All seed-stable and in organic quality.
 
 
Colorful biodiversity in your own garden
 
If you are lucky, you can encounter these native species in nature here.
You can also ensure sustainability and biodiversity yourself and bring native wildflowers into your garden.
 
I have written down a few for you here. All of these plants provide insects with a valuable source of food. You can find tips on sowing at the bottom of the text.
 
arnica
field larkspur
field bellflower
Bärwurz
valerian
mountain leek
blue monkshood
purple loosestrife
wood anemone
thistle
Marshmallow
German chamomile
Feldmannstreu
rock pink
daisy
common columbine
Coltsfoot
St. John's wort
poppy
knotted bellflower
Konrade
cornflower
dandelion
lily of the valley
musk mallow
viper's bugloss
peach-leaved bellflower
rose mallow
sand pink
wild thyme
wood sorrel
yarrow
scabious
radiant broadleaf
meadowfoam
meadow scabious
meadow cornflower
meadow sage
Wild mallow
wild marjoram
 
 
Here you can find all local flowers in the shop
 
Or just click on the pictures!
 
TIPS FOR NATIVE WILD PLANTS IN YOUR OWN GARDEN
 
  • One of the most common reasons why wildflowers don't grow well in your garden is that our soil is too rich in nutrients. Most prefer poorer soil. Therefore, it is best to mix the soil with sand and not fertilize it.
  • I also recommend that you grow them in pots. Then they'll have a head start with a larger size and won't be overgrown by weeds so quickly. Or eaten by snails.
  • Pay attention to their location requirements. The sand pink and the rock pink, for example, have their dream location in their name... The rock pink in particular grows well in my bed. A spot in the rock bed is particularly fine for them, however.
  • purple loosestrife loves it moist (I have it in a zinc tub - actually without a hole) and every year it gives me a lot of joy in its "swamp". But even when it gets drier, it copes well.
  • At the moment I am a big fan of medicinal valerian . It grows well pretty much everywhere and looks wonderful as a tall perennial in my flowerbeds (I even have it in a pot).
  • With yarrow you will notice: the richer the soil, the taller the perennial will grow. Take this into account when designing the flowerbed!
  • You can of course also plant them as a wildflower meadow. Please make sure not to sow them too densely; they all need their space to develop properly. It is best to mix the seeds with sand and then sow them on well-prepared ground (free of weeds and grass).
 
 
*Native plants
 
" Indigenous plants , also called autochthonous plants, are those plant families that are native to a particular area, i.e. that have spread there without human influence and occur and reproduce there permanently.
A distinction is made between plant species that have entered the area through human influence, namely:
  • Archaeophytes before the year 1492
  • Neophytes from 1492
  • cultivated plants
In many cases, it is very difficult to classify a plant species into the above categories. The seemingly arbitrary separation after 1492 refers to the discovery of America, after which an increased exchange of flora between the Old World and the New World was made possible and many cultivated plants in particular were actively spread worldwide."
(Source: Wikipedia)
 
 
 
Photo Purple Loosestrife: Sonja Bannick
Photos of native wildflowers: Janina Laszlo/Samen Maier