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Saving Flower Seeds

Reasons and Benefits of Seed Saving Why Gardeners Save Seeds

Aug 29, 2006

Bread Poppy Seeds Are Small, Barbara Martin

Many gardeners save their own seeds each year. Some do it to save money, some to preserve genetic diversity, some to hybridize, some do it for fun .... Start saving now!

Many gardeners save seeds from their flower (and vegetable) gardens to plant and grow the following year. Seed savers do this for many reasons. Some flower gardeners save seeds as an economizing or money saving step, or to have a ready stock of seeds for swapping with gardening friends, or to be able to grow varieties that are not easy to find commercially. Some seed savers just have left over seed and want to keep it for next year. This is the first of a series of three articles on Basic Seed Saving for Flower Gardeners. You may also want to see Harvesting Flower Seeds to Saveand How to Save and Store Flower Seedsfor additional information and tips and step by step directions on how to harvest, save and store your seeds correctly. (See also How to Test Seed Viability if you are wondering if your old seeds are still any good or are having problems getting saved seed to germinate.)

Reasons Why Gardeners Save Seeds

Some gardeners save seeds for sentimental reasons and enjoy growing successive generations of a favorite plant descended from a friend or relative's garden, or as a souvenir from a favorite place or famous garden.

Some flower gardeners save seeds as a personal contribution toward maintaining and preserving the critical genetic diversity of the planet. Some seed savers simply prefer growing heirloom plants or wild flowers rather than modern hybrids.

Some seed savers hope to carefully select and ultimately refine or develop the seed strain in their garden to a point of perfection. Some seed savers are in fact amateur hybridizers.

There are probably as many reasons to save seed as there are gardeners who do so, but I suspect most gardeners save seeds because it's fun and easy!

How To Save Seeds: Seed Saving Basics

Whatever your reason for seed saving, the most important steps to successful seed saving include identifying worthwhile plants to save the seed from, allowing the seed to mature before harvesting it, and then storing the seed in a cool and dry place to preserve its viability.

To learn which seeds are best to save, how to collect the seeds, and how to store them so they stay fresh over time, see More Basic Seed Saving for Flower Gardeners:

Harvesting Flower Seeds to Save

How to Save and Store Flower Seeds

All Flower Gardens Articles So Far

The copyright of the article Saving Flower Seeds in Flower Gardens is owned by Barbara M. Martin. Permission to republish Saving Flower Seeds in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Comments

Apr 23, 2007 3:48 PM

Meg Abrams :

I've never heard of anyone saving Daffodil Seeds, but I noticed these big pods this spring where my Daffodil flowers once had been. I picked one off to see what it was, and low and behold it was filled with tons of these little white seeds! They definately looked imature, so I need to know when Daffodil seeds should be havested and if it will do any good? Can you grow Daffodils from seed? Why doesn't anyone sell Daffodil seeds then? Any suggestions anyone?

Apr 24, 2007 9:40 AM

Barbara M. Martin :

Hybridizers grow daffodils from seed to try to produce new varieties. The problem with it is it takes a really long time to get a blooming size bulb from seed. Typical is maybe five years! Most people buy and plant bulbs because they like results (flowers) sooner than that.

That said, daffodils that naturalize well are seeding themselves about naturally, so if you have a naturalized planting you should see seedlings popping up sooner or later.

The initial foliage is very thin, I usually found them about a flower stem's length away from the original clump. That makes sense: the ovary is at the base of the flower petals, then when the flower fades and eventually the stem topples over and splat, out fall the seeds.

Back to your question, the seeds are ripe when they literally rattle in the seedpod or the pod is about to burst open on its own. They should be black then.

Some people plant them right away, others wait and plant in late summer. Apparently they can also be stored, but with the time frame we are looking at, why would you want to delay even longer?

May 1, 2007 9:17 AM

Angela England :

I think the idea of hybridizing flowers is exciting and even as an amateur gardener it appeals to me. But I had no idea it took so long for Daffodils to reach blooming age! No wonder so many home gardeners try hybridizing daylillies instead - it only takes them until the second year to bloom.

Still - if you were planning to be around for awhile and had a space to let them naturalize it would be fun to experiment with crossing different varieties.

Hmmm......

Angela -- plotting and scheming

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