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It's time to start collecting and saving seeds again! We just love this time of year, the spent flowers are producing their seeds and we get super busy collecting them in.
Seed Collecting
We love how each plant has it's own special set of rules for collecting its seeds, and how they best propagate - but the masters of doing this is of course the plant itself, we are just the by-standers, hoping to share in some of their offerings!
It can be a fiddly job collecting seeds, so we thought we would share some of the easy ways we do it, AND ask for your advice on how to collect seeds from other plants.
Hollyhocks
You'll soon be seeing some of these seeds turning up with your orders - collecting Holly hock seeds is so easy. We just wait until the flower has stopped blooming, turned brown and dried a little. We then just bring them in, dry them in a brown paper bag or box, then when completely dry, open up the little pod of seeds and separate them from the dried up petals.
Hollyhocks are so very easy to grow, you can literally just throw and grow. They do not come true from seed, meaning you can never tell what colour you'll get, but there in lies the fun, They are fabulous self seeders too, so in a few years we will all end up with an amazing display of tall colour like in Ile De Re, France!
Lupins
Lupins were the very first plant I ever grew. My Grandad gave me a seed in a plastic cup and I was hooked from then on. While Lupins should be dead headed to prolong their flowering, I always make sure to let a few go to seed, so that I can collect the seeds in and make more for the next year.
Like Hollyhocks, you never know what colour you'll get when you're planting from self collected seeds, but regardless, they are beautiful. When the seed pods have turned brown or black, cut off the stem and let it dry out for a bit. Once dry you get the satisfying job of popping the pods! I only discovered this year how to pop them from the end and the seeds come flying out. Nature never fails to amaze - Lupins have their very own scattering system!
Shasta Daisies
Ooh I love these, but I probably have too many now as my garden looks as though it's been invaded by them!
Once the lovely daisy has finished blooming, wait until the daisy head turns brown - that's the petals and also the yellow bit in the middle. Once it's all completely brown, snip off the flower head and lay them out to completely dry (don't have them touching or layered though, as they go mouldy).
Once dark brown and crispy, the centre part that was yellow is where the seeds are. I just rub the seeds out with my thumb and use a cullender to separate the seed from the petals etc. These seeds do need stratifying (the posh word for putting them in the fridge for a few weeks), before sowing out, so remember to do that in the spring.
I've had success with these seeds before, so i'm pretty confident about doing it again. What I haven't tried though is collecting seeds from Rudbeckia/ Black Eyed Susan. Have you tried to collect the seeds from them? Did it work?
I also have a Venus Fly Trap that has some flowers on it - i'm going to give that a go too. I'm pretty excited about that one. Has anyone tried it? I'd love to hear about it!
We love to hear from you, your ideas, suggestions and comments. If you have anything you think we might like to try, please leave a comment below.
We love sharing our seeds with you, in your orders. We also try to swap seeds with friends, neighbours and colleagues and love the variety it brings into our gardens. Maybe you could do the same, or even set up a seed swapping box at work or locally?
If you try any of these ideas, please let us know!
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Wishing you warm, sunny days ahead, full of fun and propagating!
Keelly & Arianne xxx