I took a different approach to wildflower gardening this year, by buying individual packs of garden wildflowers that I knew, or suspected, would do well here in the inland Northwest, and were capable of long blooming seasons. I had some winners and losers. In late March or early April, I sowed shirley poppies, opium poppies, california poppies, linaria, baby blue eyes, foam flower, red and blue flax larkspur and bachelor buttons, dame's rocket, sweet alyssum, godetia, chinese forget-me-nots, and russell hybrid lupines. In late April or early May I sowed cosmos, four o-clocks, and lavatera, black-eyed susans, annual phlox, scarlet runner beans, and morning glories. First to bloom were the alyssum and linaria. (By early May). By late May, linaria and california poppies were starting to bloom, and shortly after, red flax. The baby blue eyes and foam flowers started to flower the first week of June. The foam flowers were disappointing, short bloom season and not showy. The baby blue eyes were pretty but also a short-season bloomer. All this while, the poppy plants were growing and growing, but not blooming Finally, about mid-June they started to burst open, and by the end of the month completely dominated the wildflower bed. A few straggly larkspur began to bloom in early July (not a great success) and the bachelor buttons and godetia by mid-july. The chinese forget-me-nots began to bloom around the same time. Self-sown feverfew began to bloom in late July, around the time the poppies were giving out. The annual phlox bloomed starting in mid-july also. The black-eyed susan began to bloom in early august, and the cosmos shortly afterward - the lavatera about the same time. Still blooming in mid-september are a few straggling poppy blossoms (most plants were pulled in early august), cosmos, black-eyed susan, a bird-planted sunflower, bachelor buttons, a few straggly godetias, some feverfew, scarlet runner beans on a tripod, four-o-clocks (not too many - also not a great success) a few straggly california poppies,chinese forge-me-nots and the lavateras. I will be very curious to see which of these wildflowers will return next year. I plan to pull most of the plants in the next few weeks, and get busy weeding all the grass, dandelions, etc, out of the bed. The advantage this year of planting by individual seed packets was having some degree of control of the heights of plants, (it was a parking strip), so that the taller plants were in the middle and the shorter ones on the sidewalk and street sides of the bed. Next year of course, it will all be mixed up, so I imagine some of the shorter plants will get shaded out before they can bloom, if they reseed at all. I'm going to try to be pretty ruthless next year in using the cultivating claw to thin the wildflower seedlings, but I know I usually let too many survive. In terms of gardening impact, the high-season of Shirley poppy bloom was the most dramatic, followed by the current time with the cosmos, lavatera and black-eyed susans. But the poppy plants turn skanky pretty quickly as their bloom time ends, and that means a full day in the heart of summer heat yanking up plants and stuffing them in a garbage can or bag. If your garden area is near the woods or other unkempt area, you could leave them, but not in a garden which is trying to look halfway civilized....lol