Wild Carrot Seeds (Daucus carota)

Wild Carrot (Daucus carota) is a native biennial, better known to some as Queen Anne’s Lace. It sends up a hairy stem with finely divided, feathery leaves, topped from June to October by flat, foam-like umbels of white flowers, often with a single dark red floret at the centre. In the wild it grows on cliff sides, in grassland and along roadsides, and it reaches roughly 30 to 40cm in a meadow sward.

The open, flat flower heads are easy for insects to land on, so Wild Carrot draws hoverflies, solitary bees, beetles and small wasps through the second half of summer. Being a biennial, it forms a leafy rosette in its first year, flowers and sets seed in its second, then dies. It keeps going in a meadow by reseeding into small gaps, so a little bare ground each year helps it persist.

It suits well-drained soil in full sun and is at home on thin, dry, low-fertility ground, including chalk and coastal sites. Avoid rich, damp or shaded ground, where it will be crowded out by grass. It works well in a garden meadow, on a sunny bank or verge, or in an orchard sward that is cut late.

Sow in autumn onto bare or scarified ground, surface-sown and firmed in without covering. Expect rosettes in year one and flowers the following summer. Cut the meadow in late summer or autumn once the seed heads have browned and remove the cuttings to keep fertility low. Combine with our 100% wildflower mixes or single species that share the same dry, sunny conditions.