A survey of the ground flora in lowland plantations on ancient woodland sites highlighted its impoverished nature in the majority of stands compared to ancient semi-natural woodlands (ASNW) on similar site types. Within all sites, the crop species and planting arrangement significantly affected the composition and extent of the ground- and field-layer vegetation. The survey concentrated on broadleaved-conifer mixtures; the most frequent being row mixtures of oak/Norway spruce and beech/pine. Within these stands the conifer component differed in its effect on the ground vegetation; Norway spruce tending to reduce the cover-abundance of vascular plants and pine tending to increase it. Moss cover was richer and more extensive in stands with Norway spruce, but only where these stands were thinned. Lower stand stem density was most consistently related to a diverse, extensive ground flora, highlighting the importance of rigorous thinning regimes in mixed stands. The buried seed bank cannot be relied on to replenish the vegetation after a rotation, as seeds of woodland ground flora were rarely detected in seed bank analysis.