Since it is too smokey to work out in the yard---I am cleaning the seeds that have already been collected.
Delphinium
Aquilegia
Papaver Nudicaule
Dianthus barbatus
Meconopsis
Some nice selections, Caroline and Betsy. I wish I was organized enough to save seeds, but in spite of my best intentions just never seem to get around to it. But I can always try for next year, right?
Right! but sometimes you can find these treasures by just walking around the garden with a few envelopes or paper lunch bags in your hand.
Yesterday I found:
Purple cluster bell flower going to seed.
And I brought in Maltese Cross seeds,
which I had bagged the seed heads as the seeds are tiny.
Hollyhock seed heads are still green, but I am watching them as they dry.
I picked some Hosta seed pods green, because the squirrels are taking them.
I am not sure that those will be any good?
For a week back there, we were getting the smoke from fires in Montana and Idaho.
When the wind shifted, we were getting smoke from fires in B.C.
There was no gardening that week!
Name: Rick Corey Everett WA 98204 (Zone 8a) Sunset Zone 5. Koppen Csb. Eco 2f
I collected a huge amount of Lavatera seed from some Lavatera thuringiaca said to be 'Barnsley' but it sure looks like or 'Rosea' (syn. Lavatera x clementii)
I didn't want it reseeding THAT much, and saved some of the seed rather than throw it away. It volunteers too freely in my yard, now.
Name: Jane Tobyhanna, PA (Zone 5a) The "Garden" is my Happy Place!
I read somewhere that you can take completely dried seedheads (the whole head) of Coneflowers and Black-eyed Susans and just plant the entire seed head in the ground and new plants will sprout from it next spring. Anyone ever hear of doing that?
It would certainly "work", but a single seed head has so so many seeds! I don't know why anyone would want an inseparable tangled mess of 25 to 100 seedlings strangling each other and stretching for light.
When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the losers. - Socrates
Name: Duane Redmond OR (Zone 5a) Life began in a garden.
I use the HOS method when planting my WS plants. The plants fight it out and the strongest survive. Been doing it for years and it works great. No need to try to separate anything.
Name: Duane Redmond OR (Zone 5a) Life began in a garden.
Certain salvia produce many seeds like the ones I listed above. Just squeeze the pod and they pop out. Others only produce few seeds and you have to be diligent about looking for them. I look inside the pod to see if I see a black seed inside. Like I said --squeeze the pod and they usually pop out. Yvonne's salvia, guanajuato, blue angel, rose queen,greggii, are ones I have that you have to be looking for often . I've even found seeds from hot lips and black and blue but the offspring didn't turn out very good.
Now agastache seeds are another matter. They are very hard to collect for me and like mentioned above they are tiny. For those, I tap the flower part into a plate or similar thing. You only get a few seeds, so you have to keep doing that every few days.
