Seed buying help, please!!!!

I'm looking at seeds for various areas - the two urgent ones are the rabbit run, which I want mainly grass but with some healthy additions, and the garden lawn, which I'd like to oversow with a greater variety of wildflowers for the benefit of the bugs and butterflies AND the buns. The last one is the roof of the hobbit hole but that won't be ready for a while, and that needs to be a wildflower meadow with grass and flowers as an important source of food for wildlife and the buns throughout the year. There is also a patch that is more shaded but I'd like to try and seed that too, even if it is just grass.

But I'm struggling with reading the mixes, my brain just can't take it in and it's a bit overwhelming. Is anyone good with the names and can just tell me if the following are safe? Or if anyone could have a look at Meadowmania or Wildseed.co.uk and tell me which ones are safe for the buns and might be suitable for in their run? They all seem to have field or corn poppies in, but are these ok?

Native wildflower seed mix (thinking for the hobbit hole roof) - Birdsfoot Trefoil (Lotus Corniculatus) 0.1%, Betony ( Stachys Officinalis) 0.1% Corn Poppy (papaver Rhoeas) 1.8% Cornflower( Cenaturea Cyanus) 0.6% 0.5%, Field Scabious (Knautia Arvensis) 0.1%, Lady’s Bedstraw (Galium Verum) 1.0%, Lesser Knapweed (Centaurea Nigra) 2.0%, (Meadow Buttercup (Ranunculus Acris) 0.1%, Meadow Vetchling (Lathyrus pratensis) 0.1%, Musk Mallow (Malva Moschata) 1.2%, Ox Eye Daisy (Leucanthemum Vulgare) 1.3 %, Ragged Robin (Lychnis Flos Cuculi) 0.02%, Red Campion (Silene Dioica) 2.0 %, Ribwort Plantain (Planatago Lanceolata) 1.6% , Rough Hawkbit (Leontodon hispidus) 0.1%, Salad Burnet (Sanguisorba Minor) 1.6%, Self Heal (Prunella Vulgaris) 1.68%, Small Scabious (Scabiosa columbaria) 0.1%, Common Sorrel (Rumex Acetosa) 0.1%, White Campion (Silene Alba) 2%, Wild Carrot ( Daucus carota) 1.4%, Yarrow, (Achillea millefolium) 0.6%, Yellow Rattle (Rhinanathus Minor) 0.4%. Browntop bent 4.4% Crested Dogstail 1.6%, Strong Creeping Red Fescue 28%, Chewings Fescue 24%, Slender Creeping Red Fescue 20%, Yellow oat Grass 1%, Sweet Vernal Grass 1%

Wildflower seed mix for lawns (for oversowing) - Yarrow 4%; Kidney Vetch 4%; Lady’s Bedstraw 12%; Common Catsear 3%; Rough hawkbit 4%; Oxeye daisy 8%; Birdsfoot Trefoil 10%, Ribwort plantain 8%; Cowslip 2%; Self heal 16%, Meadow Buttercup 12%; Common sorrel 17%

Seed mix for woodland areas - Betony ( stachys officinalis) 1.0% Bluebell Seed (Hyancith non Scripta) 2.0%, Common Agrimony (Agrimonia Eupotar) 2.0%, Hedge Bedstraw (Galium Mollugo) 1.0%, Hedge Garlic ( Alliaria Petiolata) 3.0%, Hedge Woundwort (Stachys Sylvatica) 0.5%, Herb Bennet (Geum Urbanum) 1.0%, Nettle Leaved Bell Flower (Campanula Trachnium ) 0.02%, Ragged Robin (Lychnis Flos Cuculi) 0.04%, Red Campion (Silene Dioica) 4.2%, Self Heal ( Prunella Vulgaris) 4.2%, Square St Johns Wort (Hypericum tetrapterum) 0.2%, Sweet Cicely (Myrrhis Odorta) 0.1%, Welsh Poppy (Meconopsis Cambria) 0.02%, Wild Foxglove (Digitalis Purpurea) 0.8%, Wood sage (Teucrium Scorodonia) 0.1%
Browntop bent 4.4% Crested Dogstail 1.6%, Strong Creeping Red Fescue 28%, Chewings Fescue 24%, Slender Creeping Red Fescue 20%, Yellow oat Grass 1%, Sweet Vernal Grass 1%

For the run I could just sow grass seed and then sow things like plantain within that myself, it's not a huge area so I think grass is the primary there, but should I just go for a hardwearing lawn type seed or something with a bigger mix? Help!!!

I don't think the seed mixes are bunny safe unfortunately. Foxglove is a massive no, buttercup is on the naughty list along with poppy. Its a shame really cos loads of those plant & grasses would be brilliant.

joey&boo said:

I don't think the seed mixes are bunny safe unfortunately. Foxglove is a massive no, buttercup is on the naughty list along with poppy. Its a shame really cos loads of those plant & grasses would be brilliant.

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I agree. Unfortunately, some of the plants listed are not bunny safe. Even if sown in a different area originally, they are likely to spread into the bunny grass area and you would have to keep an eye on it (especially foxglove and buttercup). It does depend on your set-up, though.

For the bunnies, any grass mix with clover, plantains and dandelions would be fine.

Grass seed mixes: you tend to find that anything with ryegrass in it will result in ryegrass taking over and the other grasses may struggle (although I can't see any in these mixes) - but it is always worth sowing a grass seed mixture so that something will grow well in your garden conditions.

I agree with both the previous responses. Sowing wildflowers from seeds is not as easy as one might imagine. When you then have to factor in what is rabbit friendly it becomes even more complex. Wildflowers need poor soil. Plus you will find that some wildflowers will grow profusely in your garden and others won't. And that doesn't seem to be as simple as some for clay soil and some for sandy or some for shade and some for sun. We have lots of wildflowers and wild areas in our garden, but there are really only a handful of plants that grow really well and can be relied upon to come back year after year. Grass will outperform most wildflowers, which is why the Yellow Rattle seed has been included in one of your mixes. But Yellow Rattle has to be sown at a certain time of the year (deepest Winter) and has to be that year's seed. Plus it is not, as far as I can find out, OK for rabbits to eat.

Then there is also the complicated factor of what is OK for rabbits to eat. I tend to go very much on the safe side here, but I realise that will result in the rabbits not getting all they maybe could. Information sites online detailing what is safe are, in my view, not always to be relied upon. There are contradictions even from sites that I have considered I should have confidence in. There is also an enormous amount of wildflowers that it's just not possible to obtain reliable information on regarding safety to feed rabbits.

I have the additional issue here that, if I introduce a wildflower seed here, I want to be reassured that the seed has native provenance.

I think what I would do in your case, is to have a look at this site https://galensgarden.co.uk/shop/meadow-seed-mixes/ I haven't checked whether their seeds are all native, but I would be reasonably confident about whether their recommendations are OK for rabbits to eat. I think I would maybe use the site for that info and then buy from one of the sites known to sell native seeds. I would start off maybe with just a few species as you can always add more once you find out what works.

Lots of the grass species listed I have identified in our hay patch

Don't know whether it will help but Parsleys' Warren is selling wildflower seeds that can be grown for rabbits to eat to help fund the charity. You can find them on Facebook and it's run by the RU member that wrote the Foraging for Rabbits book.

Ok, I'll stop going insane then - I was only looking at those sites as they had been recommended on the gardening thread, but maybe not with the intention of being bunny safe
There is a lovely mix of grasses and safe herbs but it only comes in £75 packs! Though I could get that and just use the excess in the ponies' field, not sure it would do very well though.
I'll have another look at Galens Garden, forgot about them, and have a look at maybe just getting a grass seed mix and then adding the plant seeds that I want to that.

HouseOfRabbit said:

Don't know whether it will help but Parsleys' Warren is selling wildflower seeds that can be grown for rabbits to eat to help fund the charity. You can find them on Facebook and it's run by the RU member that wrote the Foraging for Rabbits book.

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I'm not on Facebook or Instagram so had no knowledge of this. Have found the website https://parsleyswarren.space/ Is it only through the FB page that I can purchase wildflower seeds? Don't need any at the moment, but would like to buy from here when I do.

dollyanna said:

Ok, I'll stop going insane then - I was only looking at those sites as they had been recommended on the gardening thread, but maybe not with the intention of being bunny safe
There is a lovely mix of grasses and safe herbs but it only comes in £75 packs! Though I could get that and just use the excess in the ponies' field, not sure it would do very well though.
I'll have another look at Galens Garden, forgot about them, and have a look at maybe just getting a grass seed mix and then adding the plant seeds that I want to that.

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Sorry, it was me who recommended those two sites and I should have made it clear that their mixes were not specifically for feeding the plants to rabbits.

The two sites are ones I have used and would trust as (a) delivering the seed as advertised and (b) selling seeds of UK origin. Galens Garden I would trust to sell seeds for plants that are safe for rabbits to eat, where they have specified that this is the case. I think your idea of getting just a grass seed mix and adding a few wildflower seeds, which you are confident are OK for rabbits, to it, is the option I would choose.

Don't worry Omi, I wouldn't have just bought it but I am exhausted from work just now and just couldn't keep reading all the mixes and trying to research the plants I didn't know already!
I've ordered some seeds from Galen's Garden for the smaller patches, but I might get more of them for the big patch too if they grow well - that's later in the year.

I might just go and have a look at the Parsley's Warren ones too seeing as they're for charity

Such a relief to have finally bought some, it's been a source of stress for a week or two but I just couldn't work it out!

Omi said:

I'm not on Facebook or Instagram so had no knowledge of this. Have found the website https://parsleyswarren.space/ Is it only through the FB page that I can purchase wildflower seeds? Don't need any at the moment, but would like to buy from here when I do.

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Looks like you can use the donation button on their website or send money via Paypal friends and family to home@parsleyswarren.space. You can get Cow Parsley Meadow Cranesbill Wild Yarrow and Wild Marjoram for a minimum donation of £8.

Not sure if you'll be able to read this but here's the Facebook post about it https://www.facebook.com/parsleyswarren.uk/photos/a.113797813635940/250815466600840/