Collecting seeds from flowering plants

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venus420 Cadillac, MI(Zone 5a) Aug 25, 2008

Bare with me as this is the first time I've ever joined any kind of forum disscussions, but this site seems very friendly and informational. I'm an avid house plant collector and love outdoor gardening. This year is the 1st in 15 years that I've been able to experiment with a flower garden and I would like to collect the seeds from them. Most of them are pretty easy to figure out, but I have a few that I'm not 100% sure if I'm actually getting good seeds. For instance I have a Delphinum and the seeds I collected are mostly black and brown, some are totally black....are they good seeds? Also I've collected some from my Bell Flower, but they are very very tiny. They look like brown lice nits only smaller I think....are they seeds? Thanks in advance for any comments.

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2zeus (Zone 7b) Aug 25, 2008

Yes those both sound like the seeds - Delphiniums are mostly black or very dark brown, and most of my Bellflower seeds are quite tiny, and a medium to dark brown.

Seed collecting is addictive! Good luck.

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WeeNel Ayrshire Scotland, United Kingdom Aug 28, 2008

The Delphinium seeds are either black or a lighter shade of Brown, for the black seeds you will find that the flowers are most likely the darker colours and the brownish ones are the lighter flowers, but never take this as read, but as a rule this is the norm, these seeds are best either planted right away as fresh seeds, plant in a compost mix of half shop bought seeds compost, or ordinary plant compost with added horticultural sand, just cover the seeds in no more and then stick the pot in a dish of water till the soil changes to a darker colour and lets you know the compost is damp enough, drain the excess water and sit in a coldish place till you see the little green shoots appear, then prick them out when there is $ good set of true leaves, into individual pots to grow on to planting outside next spring. OR wait till winter and stick the seeds into a bag with the same mixture, pop them into the refrigerator for about 4/6 weeks to trick the seeds into thinking they have came through a winter frost, and grow them on as before.
For your bell flowers, dont cover the seeds as these need light to germinate and as the seeds are so fine like grains of sand, you will bury them too deep if you cover them with soil which can rot the tiny seeds and stop them germinating. after you have collected all the seeds you need from your plants, you should cut the flowering stems off down at the base and let the foliage die down, same with your lambs tails (ears) and cut off any dead or decaying foliage so the plant dont rot over the winter. good luck. WeeNel.

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