Shelly love that photo. I just harvested some of my native red columbine seeds yesterday. I need to go get more of the little envelops at Walmart. Some I just sprinkled on the ground and the rest are in a big ziplock bag here in the house.

Ditto, what Shelly said...save seeds.

I'm always willing to encourage folks to save seeds. It's one of the best hobbies goin'! And if not a hobby then do it to help out your finances!

Shoe (pic of this years tomato seed varieties, drying on plates)

Great tip Shelly! I go in spurts collecting seed ... some years I collect lots, other years I just let the plants drop and reseed right there.

Shoe: Wow, look at all those tomato seeds ... you'll have a Tomato Orchard next season for sure!

Shoe what varieties of tomatoes do you have?

Oh Lynn! I love the red columbine! They are so pretty!

Wow Shoe!! Looks like you have had a lot of different mater sammiches! What a great tip on how to dry the seeds. I put mine on paper towels, and many times I forget "why in the world would I leave a paper towel there?!?!" and toss them out.

Lin, I too go in spurts. I try really hard to save them, because now I have plants I actually love, and want to spread them around, but sometimes I just plain forget, and whack them down.

I have actually had fun learning about seed heads, and the different ways of harvesting. Oh my Mountain Garland, I thought I was too late, the pods had broken open already. I decided to pull them up, and felt a seed hit my arm. Into the house I went, got a brown paper bag, plopped those old worn out plants in there, and shooooook the bag like crazy. Seeds galore.

YAY for seeds! Save seeds, harvest seeds, plant seeds, scatter seeds. It's FUN too!

It like finding treasure.

Great idea on using paper bags to collect the seeds, Shelly. It works great for Echinacea and other flowers you want to dry for their seeds. Those little lunch bags are the perfect size for sticking a bundle of flower stems in then tying up and hanging up side down. The flower heads dry and the seeds fall into the bags for easy collection.

Regarding the tomato seeds in the previous pic I posted, each plate is a different variety. After they are fermented I dry them on a paper (wax coated ) plate so I can write directly on the plate the harvest info (variety, date, etc). Soon I'll be putting these in their individual coin envelopes. All seeds except a select few of each variety for backup stock will go to Carolyn Male who in turn will list them in Seed Savers Exchange.

I'm good at saving veggie seeds but still learning the best ways to save flower seeds so will have to rely on ya'll for tips and tricks along those lines. So far I find it easy and enjoyable saving Moonvine seeds (not to be confused with "moon flower"), melampodium, Tithonia, Echinacea, various herbs, etc.

Shoe

Especially important to save seeds this year in TX because of the drought and wildfires. Good tip Shelly.

Wonderful tip Shelly!

Yep! Saving seeds is "da bomb!"
Tomato Seeds for 2012 Spring Crop

Oh my goodness ... you all are great. I'm such a klutz, if I had plates full of seeds sitting around to dry I'd be bumping into them and end up with the domino effect and have seeds all mixed up everywhere!

Yeh, but what a great and interesting garden you'd have, eh Lin!?

Shoe

Thanks Vic!

Wow! With you "guys" saving your seeds on the plates! Awesome!!!

Don't forget to save and trade or give away! You can save dozens of times more seed than you need from just one crop, then trade them for a dozen new things.

For me, the hardest part is waiting long enough for seed heads (or pea pods) to mature fully and dry completely.

Often I'm still waiting for them to finish turning brown when the Fall rains start.

I even try to find some usable seeds in cut flowers after they die indoors in a vase - like zinnias - and imagine that I have gotten a few viable seeds that way.

But really, they should mature and dry "on the vine".

I usually wring out a really wet seed head, then pat it dry, then park it on a coffee filter sitting on top of a towel.

If there are likely to be several days of rain in a row, I balance the risk of rotting on the plant against the risk of imature seeds & rotting indoors.

Like someone else, I write the name on the coffee filter, or else everything will be "NO ID" or the "Sine nomine" flower. In fact, I write labels before collecting seeds, because I might grab a few seed pods from several different kinds of plants, grabbing each pod when ready.

It's convenient to write name and date collected and color on a separate slip of paper that can be moved from collecting tub to drying coffee filter to folded paper packet for ongoing drying to open ziplock to closed ziplock.

Just remember, before sealing the ziplock, that paper can hold a lot of water! If the paper is limp instead of crisp, it is too humid to seal inside a ziplock with seeds.

I also like the idea that we should not bring seed baggies into the garden, then back into the house and store them with other seeds. The bag gets damp and dirty when you set it down, or handle it with dirty fingers. That encourages mold if you put it back into the storage area at all wet or dirty.

Before sowing, I split out the amount of seed that I want to sow, label that bag, then empty it while sowing and DON'T return any soil or moisture to the jar where I store clean seeds.

(That's why I like storing 2-3 duplicate labels inside each seed pkt. It lets me sow some and save some. Or trade some and save some without relying on my terrible handwriting.)

I have indeed saved and traded seeds in the past, but the "collecting" part usually depends on my mood, or whether I remember to take the time to go out and do it! When my youngest niece was in her first year of college I went to visit her in S.C. that fall and my sisters laughed at me because everywhere we walked around campus I was collecting seeds from lots of plants. My Echinacea's are all going to seed right now ... the Northern Cardinal's seem to be enjoying them but it's just been so hot I haven't had the urge to take the time to collect any but many seeds drop and I know they will re-sprout next spring.

HA! I'm much less organized. When Inky and I go walking, I fill my jeans pockets with seeds from plants that I think butterflys will like. When I get back, I pull them out and mark the envelope like: "purple thing, 3' high, small flower cones, bloomed late Aug. in the church yard". I put the envelope in a box with others on the cold porch and spread 'em about in spring. Then I wonder what they are when they come up...never sure what to weed!

Every time I watch a "DNA test" on CSI or NCIS, I wonder if those can be used to identify plants!

(Or there's the Plant ID Forum.)

yep...but I STILL haven't learned the difference between a perennial and a weed. Seem the butterflies feel the same.