Flower seed saving

(in order from top L, sweet pea, bachelors buttons (corn flowers), red poppy, bottom two trays are both calendula)

I am fairly new to the world of growing flowers. Growing veggies for years has shown me that growing flowers isn’t much different, if not easier with some flowers, despite the ominous impression I initially felt about the blooming world. I love the land of blooms so much, I’m launching whole-heartedly into all things flower and the seed saving is turning out to be such fun.

Our friends make seed packets every year that their kiddos assemble and decorate and I’ve long loved this activity, both for the sharing and community aspect, but also for the family project of creating something together that will bloom for someone else.

Saving seeds for many flowers is as simple as letting the flower die, then pulling off the dried pod or bud and either separating the closed bud or dropping the seeds out of the pod. Not every flower produces fertile seeds, and you’ll discover this via trial and error, but a vast majority do.

I’ve had good luck specifically with poppies of all sorts, larkspur, calendula, sweet pea flowers, marigold, zinnia & sunflowers (the latter two really reseeding themselves without me even harvesting seeds). There are so many more flowers I’m experimenting with this season, and I can’t wait to report back.

This marigold plant sprouted from me separating the pod of dried blooms from last year and sprinkling them around the yard in the fall.

This calendula forest has sprouted after lots of rainy windy days here in Central Texas prevented me from harvesting the dried seed pods. They dropped in the storms and are sprouting like crazy! I’m going to dig up the lot of them and offer them to friends as starts.

What seeds will you be saving this season?