PlantSowGrow
How to grow Yellow Rattle
Rhinanthus minor
🌸 Flower
🌱 Grown each year
The "meadow maker": a native annual that weakens grass roots, giving wildflowers room to grow. Sow fresh seed in autumn — it needs winter cold.
At a glance: Sow early September to mid November.
When to sow, plant and harvest
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Sow outdoors
Flowers
Timed for a typical UK garden (last frost mid-April). The app uses your own town's frost dates.
Growing Yellow Rattle: what it needs
- Light
- Full sun · 6+ hours a day
- Watering
- Water in dry spells; pots daily in summer
- Soil
- Any well-drained soil
- Spacing
- Broadcast 1 g per m² into short-mown grass
- Height
- 30 cm
- In pots
- Grows well in containers
- Feeding
- Liquid feed every two weeks once flowering starts
- Hardiness
- USDA zones 2–11
- Difficulty
- Easy
Step by step
- Early September – mid November · 20 weeks after the last spring frost
Sow Seeds Outdoors
Sow thinly where they are to flower, in a sunny spot, into raked, weed-free soil. Mow the grass very short and scratch the surface with a rake before sowing.
- 120–160 days after “Sow Seeds Outdoors” · Late December – early February
Check Germination
Seedlings appear in early spring after the winter cold. Do not mow the area from now until midsummer.
- 40–70 days after “Check Germination” · Early February – mid March
First Flowers
Take a photo for your journal!
- 45–75 days after “First Flowers” · Late March – late April
Mow After Seeding
Once the seed pods rattle (July–August), mow and rake off the cuttings so the seed drops for next year.
