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  • Roses
    • Types of Roses
    • Easy Roses
    • Climbing Roses
    • Portland's Rose Test Garden
    • Rose Insects & Diseases
    • Pruning Roses
    • Rose Sawfly
    • Rose Bloom Balling
  • Pruning Basics 101
    • Pruning Tools
    • Winter Pruning
    • Pruning Grapes
    • Pruning Clematis
    • Prune Your Own Garden Registration
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Amanda's Blog

Amanda's Garden Consulting Company

Collecting seeds Not only Saves Money, It Also Adds Mystery to your life

24/8/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
I love expanding my burgeoning plant collection by gathering seeds from my favorite plants. It’s cost effective, extremely rewarding and very mysterious yes – mysterious…  

​Seeds often don’t resemble their parents, just like people are not exact duplicates of theirs. I’ve grown some pretty cool hellebores from my Lenten roses that don’t resemble their mother plant. That’s how new exciting varieties come about from plant breeders. These plants are referred to as hybrids. How do you know if the seeds you have will grow into exact replicas of their parent or a different version? Seeds from hybrid plants will not be identical to the parents, however, seeds from plants that are non-hybrids should look like their parents. If you don’t know what you have, experiment and enjoy the mystery. 
Picture
Collect hellebores (Lenten & Christmas rose), when the flower centers dry out and become papery.
Picture
Ripe hellebore are big and black.

How to save Seeds

  • Collect seed from flowers, fruit and veggies when the seed heads and seeds are fully mature. They should be brown and papery, not green, as they won't germinate.
  • Harvest the seeds when they are totally dry to the touch, to prevent them from rotting.
  • Cover the heads of nodding sunflowers with a paper bag to protect the seeds from birds and to collect them as they ripen. 
  • When removing seeds heads, place a bowl underneath to catch any seeds that fall.
  • Place collected seeds in paper envelopes and seal.
  • Label with the name of the plant (if you know it, if you don’t describe it – ‘yellow daisy flowers’) and the date. 
  • Store all seeds in a frost-free, dry place.
Picture
These hollyhocks seed capsules are not ready as they are still green.
Picture
Hollyhocks seed capsules are brown and ready to collect.
Picture
Many disk-shaped seeds surround a central disk within a hollyhock seed capsule.

Tomatoes & Cucumbers
  • save seeds from mature fruits that are fully ripe
  • remove seeds with the pulp and juice and place into a container
  • allow seeds to ferment in their own juices for three days at room temperature
  • in a few days remove any mould and seeds that floats to the surface
  • after a week, rinse the seeds that remain on the bottom
  • allow seeds to dry on paper towels, then store
Peppers:
  • remove seeds from mature red and orange peppers, green peppers are immature
Peas, Beans:
  • select plump, mature pods
harvesting seeds,collecting seeds,the garden website.com,Amanda's Garden Consulting,Amanda Jarrett
Ripe scarlet runner beans are fully ripe.
harvesting seeds,collecting seeds,the garden website.com,Amanda's Garden Consulting,Amanda Jarrett
Ripe columbine seeds fall from their pod.
harvesting seeds,collecting seeds,the garden website.com,Amanda's Garden Consulting,Amanda Jarrett
Save petunia seeds when the seed heads become brown and the wee seeds fall into your hand.
harvesting seeds,collecting seeds,the garden website.com,Amanda's Garden Consulting,Amanda Jarrett
A few more days and this pod of radish seeds will be brown and ready to harvest.
harvesting seeds,collecting seeds,the garden website.com,Amanda's Garden Consulting,Amanda Jarrett
Violet capsules release their ripe seeds. Cool.
harvesting seeds,collecting seeds,the garden website.com,Amanda's Garden Consulting,Amanda Jarrett
Poppy seed heads act like pepper pots as they scatter their seeds from openings under their lid.
harvesting seeds,collecting seeds,the garden website.com,Amanda's Garden Consulting,Amanda Jarrett
There are numerous large brown seeds within each capsule along the stem of a crocosmia.
harvesting seeds,collecting seeds,the garden website.com,Amanda's Garden Consulting,Amanda Jarrett
Individual lavender seed pods contain hundreds of tiny black seeds.
harvesting seeds,collecting seeds,the garden website.com,Amanda's Garden Consulting,Amanda Jarrett
A sweet pea pod is ready to harvest.
harvesting seeds,collecting seeds,the garden website.com,Amanda's Garden Consulting,Amanda Jarrett
The remains of a poppy seed head looks like a regal crown.
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    Archives

    Here are some of my previous blog postings. They cover a wide range of topics from bugs to my botanical excursions and conventions. Click on whichever interests you on the titles below for easy navigation. 
    • ​Building a French Kitchen (Potager) Garden
    • Colourful Fall Plants
    • Tomato Taming
    • Speeding up Tomato Harvests
    • Saving Tomato Seeds
    • Plant Rusts
    • Dunbar Garden Club Garden Tour 2020
    • Rose Bloom Balling
    • ​Types of Roses
    • Easy Roses Do Exist.. Really!​
    • Easy Vegetable Garden Trellis 
    • Tomato Seedlings to Plants
    • Video: How to Divide Dahlias 
    • Video: How to Plant a Tree
    • Video: How to Prune a Grapevine in Winter
    • Damping Off - A Seedling Killer!
    • Lawns: ​Seeding, Sowing, Renovating
    • Lawn Grub Control
    • Tuberous Begonias 101
    • Dahlias 101
    • Pruning in Winter
    • Pruning & Training Grape Vines in Winter
    • Insects & Diseases Control with Dormant Spray
    • Dealing With Drought
    • Heritage Vancouver 7th Annual Garden Tour
    • Growing Potatoes
    • Pruning Shrubs into Trees
    • 10 Steps to Festive Planter
    • Christmas Tree Selection 
    • Collecting & Saving Seeds
    • Heritage Vancouver 6th Garden Tour
    • The Dunbar Garden Tour 2018
    • Dart's Hill, A Garden Park
    • VanDusen Botanical Gardens Visit
    • Tall Kale Tales
    • Northwest Flower & Garden Show, Seattle
    • Pruning in Winter
    • Pruning & Training Grape Vines in Winter
    • Insects & Diseases Control with Dormant Spray
    • Why Christmas cactus Don't Blossom
    • A Quickie Festive Swag
    • Putting the Garden to Bed
    • How to Drain Soggy Soil
    • A Visit to the Arizona - Sonora Desert
    • Banana, Palm Tree Winter Protection
    • Lasagna Gardening, Sheet Mulching
    • Saving Geraniums, Coleus, Bougainvilleas & Other Tender Plants 
    • Spiders Everywhere - Oh My!
    • Tomato Troubles & Soil Solarization
    • Trees That Drip That Sticky Stuff
    • Balcony Bliss
    • June Bugs - One Huge Beetle! 
    • A Summer's Day Harvest
    • The Dunbar Garden Club Private Tour
    • Leaky Birdbaths and Slug Free Strawberries
    • Oops... Wrong Plant, Wrong Place
    • I Had An Ugly Lawn...​
    • ​How to Make a Christmas Elf
    • Houseplant Winter Care
    • To subscribe to my blog click here. 

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Copyright © 2017
Photo used under Creative Commons from vwcampin
  • Home
  • About, Services, Contact
  • Ask Amanda
  • Roses
    • Types of Roses
    • Easy Roses
    • Climbing Roses
    • Portland's Rose Test Garden
    • Rose Insects & Diseases
    • Pruning Roses
    • Rose Sawfly
    • Rose Bloom Balling
  • Pruning Basics 101
    • Pruning Tools
    • Winter Pruning
    • Pruning Grapes
    • Pruning Clematis
    • Prune Your Own Garden Registration
  • Lawn Basics
    • Lawn Reno, Seed & Sod
    • Lawn Maintenance Schedule
    • Spring Lawn Care
    • Moss in Lawns
    • Lawn Alternatives
    • Lawn Grub Control
  • Mulch & Mulching
    • Living Mulches - Groundcovers
  • Propagation
    • Growing Seeds Outdoors
    • Growing Seeds Indoors
    • Taking Cuttings
    • Seed & Plant Catalogues
  • How to Garden Topics
    • Fall Garden Chores
    • Planting Know-How
    • Soil Building
    • Watering Tips & Techniques
    • Drought Gardening
    • Sheet Mulching, Lasagna Gardening
    • Cover Crops
    • Composting
    • Compost Tea
    • Houseplant Winter Care
    • Hummingbirds in Winter
    • Winterize Your Garden
    • Ponds in Winter
  • Growing Food
    • Spring Veggie Gardening
    • Crop Rotation, Succession & Companion Planting
    • Harvesting
    • Growing Potatoes
    • Winter Veggie Gardening
    • Taming Tomatoes
    • Speeding up Tomato Harvest
    • Tomato Tips
    • Saving Tomato Seeds
    • Tomato Troubles
  • Plant Pests 1
    • Plant Pests Part 2 - Controlling Insects
    • Garden Inspections
    • Helping Pollinators
    • Dogwood Anthracnose
    • Viburnum Leaf Beetle
    • Dormant Oil/Lime Sulfur
    • Japanese Beetles
    • Peony Blotch/Measles
    • Slugs & Snails
    • Horsetail, the Weed
    • June Beetle
    • Powdery Mildew
    • Soil Solarization
    • Rhododendron Leaf Spot
    • Plant Rusts
    • Black Knot
  • Container Growing
    • Choosing a Container
  • Feeding Plants 101
    • Fertilizers & Ratios
    • Nutritional Deficiencies & Toxicities
    • Organic Plant Food
  • Plant of the Month
    • Spring Flowering Bulbs
    • Colourful Fall Plants
    • Abelia
    • American Sweetgum
    • Ash (Fraxinus) Trees
    • Astilbes
    • Aubretia, Rock Cress
    • Aucuba, Japanese Spotted Laurel
    • Autumn Crocus
    • Bear's Breeches
    • Beautyberry, Callicarpa
    • Black-eyed Susans
    • Bleeding Heart, Lamprocapnos spectabilis
    • Calla Lilies
    • Dahlias
    • Daylily
    • Delphiniums
    • Devil's Walking Stick, Aralia spinosa
    • Dwarf Alberta Spruce
    • Dwarf Burning Bush
    • Evergreen Clematis
    • Fall Asters
    • Flowering Currants
    • Flowering Quince
    • Fritillaria
    • Garden Peonies
    • Garden Phlox
    • Ginkgo biloba
    • Grape-hyacinths
    • Handkerchief or Dove Tree
    • Harry Lauder's Walking Stick
    • Heathers
    • Hellebores, Lenten roses
    • Himalayan Sweet Box
    • Jack-in-the-pulpit, Cobra Lily
    • Japanese Anemones
    • Japanese Forest Grass
    • Japanese Maples
    • Japanese Skimmia
    • Japanese Spurge
    • Laurustinus viburnum
    • Lavenders
    • Lily-of-the-Valley Shrub, Pieris japonica
    • Mediterranean Spurge
    • Mexican Mock Orange
    • Montana Clematis
    • Mountain Ash
    • Oriental Poppies
    • Oriental Lilies
    • Paperbark Maple
    • Pink Dawn Bodnant Viburnum
    • Poinsettias
    • Oregon Grape Holly
    • Ornamental Kale
    • Peruvian Lily, Alstroemeria
    • Phalaenopsis, Moth Orchids
    • Persian Silk Tree
    • Portuguese Laurel
    • Rose of Sharon
    • Sneezeweed, Helenium
    • Snowberry
    • Snowdrops
    • Star Magnolia
    • Strawberry Tree, Pacific Madrone
    • Stewartia
    • Torch Lily, Kniphofia uvaria
    • Tree Peonies
    • Tuberous Begonias
    • Virginia Creeper
    • Weigela
    • Winterhazel, Corylopsis
    • Winter Camellia, C. sasanqua
    • Wintergreen, Gaultheria procumbens
    • Witch Hazel
    • Wood Anemones
    • Yews
  • Garden Tour Blogs
  • Monthly Flower Arrangements
  • Website Index
  • Subscribe
  • Need Help?
  • Garden Club Events