If flowers are picked before drying...

I have a couple of grandkids that love to pick my flowers while they are in bloom at their best. !!! Can I dry them out and use the seeds, Marigold would be one. I hate to see all those blooms with all those seeds just laying there!!
Sorry I'm so uninformed, but these are really different marigolds and I hate to see one little seed go to waste!! lol Like I won't have a million at the end of their season!!

Marigold seed is best if dried on the plant and marigolds are best if allowed to dry and self seed in the garden. I would suggest that you just shed a tear but then there might be a different magic for your climate ^_^. Like you say "like there isn't a million" . I spend hours looking for homes for all them every spring rather than the face the murder of the compost LOL

I know, I do too. Sometimes it seems like there is a hundred seeds in each one. They were just so pretty, cause they are so different. (tears running down my face) I'll throw them away, but it will be so sad!!! Course they've picked all the dianthius too and anything else that blooms. They are twins, so when you look down and see two llittle happy faces with flowers in their hands for you. Even if it is from your garden. How can you get mad?

O I here you Lorainne. Two years ago I answered the doorbell to a very teary small face and a very embarrassed neighbour mom with a dinnerplate dahlia bloom in her hand. He'd plucked it from my garden and brought it home as a present for her. I solomly accepted his hiccopping apololgy but I felt worse than he did. I did ask since he liked them if he would like to help me care for them. Easy cuz they live right across the street. WELL I tell you little one's are slave drivers and now I can't EVER be late on cutting off side buds or watering LOL.

How sweet, They have unlimited energy !!! I had some seed setting out and when I got ready to put them up, they weren't there. Little blond head looking through the door "I plant some seeds Nanny". I've got stuff coming up every where....!!! lol

You know Lorraine those are the BEST beds in my opinion!! I dare you to say they won't bring a smile to your face every time you look at them.

You know they will, I'll see those little fingers digging holes and stuffing seeds in. Then they have to go get the water and put about 14 gallons of water on them. We have pretty flowers N an ny> lol

Those beds will probably look a lot better than the ones I planted

LOL I liked it better when they stuck to the seeds. My six year old is suddenly a rose lover. Why can't he pick a less-high-maintenance plant? He has picked some real beauties, though, so I can't say no to him, and we always find a place for them.

Here is the one he picked out at Pecks in Cedar Rapids, Ia, after the DG Round-up. It is called Mardi Gras.

Kid has good taste, huh. Maybe he will be a rose grower and come up with one that he can make a million bucks at and bauy you a ton of roses LOL

I'm sending a picture of Kaleb and Ian working in their flower bed. Tucker who's 6 is at school, but he works too.

Awww, Lorraine, they are precious! I do miss that age. Maybe that's why I teach preschool. . . My whole class has to humor me in the spring. We plant bulbs, seeds, plants, even start bean seeds in baggies in the window to watch how roots grow.

That's cool you do that!!! I've been thinking about getting some seedlings and putting them in little pots for the kids in Tuckers 1st grade class.

I love toddlers too, but don't know if I could work with them everyday. I'm not that brave. You must have nerves of steel!!! Kaleb and Ian are twins and it's something else with not one but 2 3 year olds. For me anyway.

They've probably put 1000 seeds in that little bitty bed., but are excited everytime they see a new one come up. They have to smell them to see if they smell good. lol

Oooh, Lorraine, you'd have to twist my arm hard to get me into a classroom of 2's and young threes. It's the fours and fives I love. Amazing what a difference a year or two makes!

Here is a fun project I do with my kids every year. They love to put the grass seed and dirt in, and give him haircuts as it grows:

http://www.agintheclassroom.org/060605/Teachers/ag%20cam/soilsam_instructions.html

I guess they do a lot better at that age, cause you can almost reason with them. NOt quite if their mind is made up, but almost.

Tucker, the 6 year old, is always the teacher's favorite (or one of them) cause at school he i s this precious little thing that never causes trouble, then gets home and acts like a maniac. Bet you have kids lilke that. Totally diff. at home and school

One of the twins has had to be in hospital a lot cause his airway is too small and if he gets a cold, it turns to croup and closes the airway. Poor kid has more more helicopter and jet rides than all the rest of us together.

Last time he was in the hospital, some body was going to take an exray or do something like that. Course Ian knows exactly what they're gonna do, so he hangs on to his mom or me and won't let go. Anyway, this guy looks at me and says, can y ou reason with him . He was two. Who can reason with a two year old? I thought that was funny. If you were hurting me I doubt you could reason with me!!!

This has nothing to do with gardening!!! lol

I couldn't help but reply to this after I read that your grandchildren are twins and what they do. I am also a twin and I remember my grandmother telling us when we were little that we could pick weeds but nothing in her flower beds. So, we discovered the slope by the road had a whole bunch of "weeds" and picked almost all of them for her! We were so proud and she tried to act pleased but we could tell that she was devastated! I had forgotten about that until now!

Bless her heart.
Bet ya'll thought you h ad really done something wonderful!!! lol These did that too! Looked out one day, my marigolds were bare and there were two little chocolate covered hellions grinning at me holding up flowers. What do you do. There is no way you can get mad!!! These two aren't identical, and look totally different!!!

Here's a picture of them working in their garden. Had to fix them one so I can have mine!!

I'm sorry, I didn't realize I had already put one up!!