Establishment of cultivated herbaceous perennials in purpose-sown native wildflower meadows in south-west Scotland

This paper presents the result of a 3 year field experiment into the establ ishment of cultivated herbaceous perennials by planting into a purpose sown , urban, native wildflower meadow in Ayr, south-west Scotland. The aim of t he experiment was to see whether it was possible to produce an attractive, low maintenance meadow of native and exotic species for use in urban parks. Twenty species and cultivars of herbaceous perennials (forbs) were selecte d for the study on the basis of possessing attractive flowers and naturally being associated with damp to wet grasslands. They were planted as small c ontainer grown plants into 200 mm diameter gaps in the wildflower meadow in September 1995, as individual plants, pairs of the same species and pairs of different species. All planted forbs were harvested immediately prior to the annual summer hay cut, dried and the dry weight of their above ground biomass determined. Forbs planted as individuals were significantly larger in the second and third year of the study, than those planted with neighbou rs of the same or different species. Many species of planted forbs demonstr ated high mortality by the third year of the experiment as a result of comp etition with the surrounding sown meadow. This competition also resulted in very low rates of dry weight increase in most planted species. Of the 20 s pecies planted, only Geraniumxmagnificum, G.xoxonianum, Iris sibirica and L ychnis chalcedonica are considered to be 'increaser' species under meadow c ultivation with a summer hay cut. Most species declined under the condition s investigated in this experiment. Factors believed to be responsible for t he failure of forb establishment, and the implications of this for future w orks are discussed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.