So far I have collected:

Mirabilis jalapa
Jatropha cathartica
Jatropha podagrica
Ipomoea lindheimeri
Ipomoea obscura 'Ethiopia'
Ipomoea carnea
Adenium obesum

Waiting for seed pods to ripen on:

Ipomoea albivenia
Ipomoea platensis
Ipomoea macrorhiza
Corallocarpus boehmii
Momordica rostrata

This is the first time for many of these plants. I'm really excited.

For things like salvia and agastache, I cut off the whole dead spike, drop into a paper bag, and let dry. Then I close the bag and shake and seeds fall out into bag.

Karen

piksihk said:I've collected these -

dietes g.

Cool - you can grow Dietes in your zone. I grew some from seed in Jan. 14 and overwintered indoors (next to my Dierama :-)) Hope to see them both bloom next year - I hope, I hope.

Dietes is not very common.

Reine said:So far I have collected:

Mirabilis jalapa
Jatropha cathartica
Jatropha podagrica
Ipomoea lindheimeri
Ipomoea obscura 'Ethiopia'
Ipomoea carnea
Adenium obesum

Waiting for seed pods to ripen on:

Ipomoea albivenia
Ipomoea platensis
Ipomoea macrorhiza
Corallocarpus boehmii
Momordica rostrata

This is the first time for many of these plants. I'm really excited.

@Reine - you do realize a lot of those Ipomoea may have crossed? Moreover - many Ipomoea revert to their hybrid parents when you grow them from seed. Keep us posted in Summer 16 as to how they turn out.
You may have some that are "new"

For the Mirabilis jalapa - try digging up and storing some tubers. Much faster next year than seed and comes true

mom2goldens said: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?

@mom2goldens - I always find time to gather seed. I pass them out at our Master Gardener Christmas party and they are always well received.

duane456 said: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.

HOS?
WS?

Hunk O Seeds
Winter Sow

I, too, was dismayed that HOS was used. I had absolutely NO idea what words it stood for, although the gist was there. Just try to convince me that this is in common use. I searched the most recent twenty threads in this forum, and it is not mentioned, even once.

I am sorry, but I just don't subscribe to the prevailing notion nowadays that it is up to "the reader to decipher what the writer is saying", rather than "the writer to speak clearly".

I am with you Rick!
I did not know either!

David--that is a lovely thing to do with your extra seeds. Our Master Gardener group is almost 350 members--a seed giveaway would be a massive undertaking. A seed exchange could probably turn into a free for all

Typically we only have about 30 members that regularly attend meetings. Quite manageable since I save lots of seeds. Our group has over 200 total.

I'm doing an exchange among a group of 20 or so acquaintances and it will be on national seed swap day the last Saturday in January 2016z
.
Also I can't help myself and need to confess this. In parking lot last month I saw some silver dollar seedheads and harvested d few. This morning at s rented home I collected 4:00 seeds. Just can't help it. I don't really even want these plants but I know several friends who are building up gardens on acreage who would love them.

David--you only have 30 people at most meetings with a membership of 200? WOW! We average over 175 member in attendance each month. Sometimes I think our group is so big, it's hard to get to know a lot of people. But, we do manage to do a LOT of volunteer work in the community....something around 15,000 hours each year.

Our MG group has been around for 20 + years. Probably 100 + members don't even garden anymore. Just put in their hours to remain a MG. We have a close relationship with the local University where we use their greenhouses and hold our annual plant sale with the biology/botany society - we gave them nearly 4,000 $ this year.

I am also a Master Naturalist - we have ~ 100 members (5 years old) and about 30 attend those meetings as well.

We are celebrating our 30th anniversary this year. Our big fundraiser is also a plant sale......this year, we sold over 10,000 plants. You have to see it to believe it. We raise a LOT of money, much of which goes toward scholarships for county students majoring in a horticultural-related field. The rest goes towards our budget for the many (almost 50) community project we support.

Awesome on the Master Naturalist designation, David.

I also am an active member of our local herb society. I am chairperson of our demonstration herb bed at the county fairgrounds--it's a fun project, and a great way to teach people about all of the different ways we can use herbs.

Apologies to everyone else for getting off-topic here. Back to regularly scheduled programming

Duane: I'm impressed by your seed saving.

I have a few of the following:

hibiscus moscheutos `Fireball'
salvia black and blue
salvia greggii

I do the bagging and shaking trick on the salvias, too. Just snip off a stem with lots of seed heads and bag it.

Anybody doing a seed swap here? I'd love to have some of those seeds of Duane's.

Here's my list of 2015 seeds:
Watsonia bourbonica (Pink Watsonia)
Albuca Bracteata (Pregnant Onion)
Asclepias curassavica (Orange Milkweed)
Papaver soneferum (Persian Blue)
Felicia ammeloides (Blue Daisy)
Cerinthe major (Blue Shrimp Plant)
Nasturtium (Orange)
Banana Canna (5’tall red flowering)
Tanacetum parthenium (Single Feverfew)
Scabiosa stellata (Star Flower Pincushion)
Gaillardia (Double Red)
Gaillardia (Double Yellow)
Aristea ecklonii (Blue Flowers)
Xerochrysum bracteatum (Red Strawflower)
Berlandeira lyrata (Chocolate Daisy)
Tweedia caerulea (Blue Milkweed)
Gomphocarpus frutiocus (Tennis Ball Bush Milkweed)
Leonotis nepetifolia (Annual Lion’s Tail)
Datura (Single White)

@DomehomeDee - wow what a collection. What Zone/where located?

@Hemophobic - there is a thread here of some folks trrying to get an ATP seed swap going - not sure of the progress.

The thread "ATP Annual Seed and Plant Exchange Idea" in Site Talk forum

Too much re-inventing the wheel for me.

David, I agree. I navigated to Cubits to see if anything had been posted about the annual Piggy Seed Swap
and am unsure of its status. One of the threads said they had moved here, hence the question.

Ella has been sick and won't be able to host the Hog Wild Piggy Swap in 2015.

As far as I know, all her Piggies already have vast quantities of seeds left over from prior years and don't plan to try to run Ella's swap without her (despite the fact that she has helpers each year).


>> Too much re-inventing the wheel for me.

I think that thread went like most suggestion threads here for a new feature or any change: everyone has at least 1-2 ideas on what might be cool or desirable, and is VERY eager to share thier opinions.

Fortunately, only a few people had any interest in doing all the work necessary, and now it's down to just one person for this year. He and Dave will decide how many and which bells and whistles to use this year in that swap.

I think there's room for more than 1-2 seed swaps per year per website, but the limiting factor on BIG swaps is how many people want to do the work to set up a "centralized" swap, or a Round Robin.

I guess the other limiting factor is getting enough people to make up-to-date OFFER or HAVE lists.
One important part of any OFFER list is how many packets you have to offer. Size of packet / number of seeds, and year harvested are also key.

(Even when i try not to, I still have o offer opinions, and I guess that IS re-inventing the wheel. I guess we just love to discuss spokes and rims and whitewalls and tread patterns.)

Wish-Lists mitigate some of the need for OFFER or HAVE lists, if seed givers are interested in looking through other people's Wish Lists.