Best wildflower suppliers

Whether you want to create a mini meadow or a wildflower border, getting the right plants and knowing how to grow them will be key to your success. 

Some mainstream plant sellers stock a small range of wildflowers, but there are specialist nurseries and farms that offer far more choice and a wealth of useful information. 

So where should you start? Which? Gardening magazine has investigated the options to find the best places to buy. 

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Best wildflower suppliers

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Seed suppliers

Plug plant suppliers

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How does buying wildflowers differ from buying other plants by mail order?

Our 'Best places to buy seeds and plants online' survey regularly throws up the sort of problems that can make buying plants online frustrating. Poor packaging, plants damaged in the post and plants not turning out to be what you ordered are all sadly not uncommon. 

However, specialist nurseries often fare much better in our customer surveys than the larger companies, and this was borne out by our trial of specialist wildflower growers. These businesses are often family run, selling seeds harvested from their own field-grown plants and plug plants grown by them from their own seed. 

A high level of expertise is evident on their websites, and the quality of seeds, plants and packaging is generally very good. We found that availability of plug plants of specific varieties can be a bit of a problem, especially with some of the smaller businesses but, apart from a few squashed plants, everything arrived in good or very good condition and everything we grew turned out to be the correct variety. 

If you do run into difficulties with any plant order, you should remember that plants are covered by the Consumer Rights Act of 2015, so if they don't match the description given by the seller, or aren't of 'satisfactory quality' (such as damaged or dying), you're entitled to a refund as long as you notify the retailer of the problem within 30 days. 

If you discover the issue after the first 30 days, you can ask for a replacement plant, or some money back if a replacement isn't possible or couldn't be provided within a reasonable time. 

Learn how to create a wildflower meadow

How we test

We ordered from nine different websites in quantities to suit the average gardener. Some websites sold both plug plants and seeds in the numbers we wanted, while others sold only seeds or only plugs. 

We chose specific varieties of wildflowers, ordering six packs of seeds and six sets of plug plants - half annual and half perennial where possible. We ordered the same varieties from each website or chose close alternatives when that wasn't possible. 

We assessed the websites for the range of wildflowers, and the quality of the information and growing advice they gave. We also rated how easy it was to navigate the sites and order. 

We assessed the quality of the packaging, the condition of the plug plants when they arrived, and the germination rate of the seeds. 

We planted plugs and seedlings outside in two beds to see how well they grew and flowered, plus whether they were the varieties we ordered.