Harvesting flower seeds and collecting seeds

You can still faintly feel the last warm rays of sun on your skin, but slowly the memories of the beautiful summer are fading, and autumn is approaching. It attacks with wind and rain, making it clear: summer is over. There's already a hint of farewell, a sense of melancholy in the air. The good news, not just for gardening enthusiasts, is: next summer is sure to come! If you want to enjoy your garden flowers next year, too, we have a few practical tips below for harvesting, collecting, and overwintering your own flower seeds !

On your marks, get set, go!

Wait for the right moment

When the nights and days are roughly the same length again after a colorful summer and temperatures have already taken a few dips, our garden flowers' final hour inevitably comes. Some sooner, some later; not least, the location also plays a crucial role in determining when they wilt. Now is the time to pay close attention and be ready to harvest. As soon as the seed capsules or seed coats turn brown, the seeds are ripe and ready to harvest. Before this phase begins, it is important to protect the seeds. Firstly, there are hungry creatures in the garden that like to snack on ripe seeds – birds, for example. And secondly, even a gentle gust of wind can be enough to blow the seeds irretrievably in all directions. Get some paper bags in time and put them over the slowly wilting flowers to ward off hungry mouths and beaks as well as gusts of wind.

Beware of moisture

However, there are other pitfalls – and one crucial factor is one we have no control over: the weather. Ideally, you should harvest the ripe seeds after a few dry days. If they're wet, however, there's a risk they'll start to mold later. If you want to be absolutely sure your seeds will grow next year, remove them from the seed pod (you should always do this anyway) and place them individually on a sheet of paper. Store this in as dry and dark a place as possible for a few days.

This allows any moisture that may still be in the seeds to evaporate. An empty box of matches is also an ideal place for drying. How you harvest the seeds depends directly on the type of seed head. Umbels are suitable for cutting, and the seeds can be easily stripped off later. Ideally, legumes should not have opened yet, but should be dark in color and dry. Capsule fruits like poppies – see above. Harvest dry or allow to dry and separate the seeds from the capsule.

Overwintering – or sowing

As you've probably already gathered, dryness is the key criterion for your seeds. Now would be a good time to transfer them – separated by variety, of course – into small paper bags and label them carefully. In our next blog post, we'll show you a few ideas for making your own beautiful seed bags . Those seeds that you want to overwinter before sowing them next spring should be stored in a place that's as dry and cool as possible. This way, they'll remain viable for quite a long time: up to three years. The basement would be a nice place for these seeds. Of the species mentioned at the beginning, however, there are some whose seeds you need to sow in the first cooler weeks of autumn, or immediately after harvest. The latter include hollyhocks, evening primroses, and foxglove. These seeds need a fair amount of warmth to survive the winter in the ground. The situation is completely different for so-called cold-germinating seeds, which include poppies and columbines. Sow these seeds when the damp autumn fog grips the days. Or simply when it's already a little flaky outside.

Collected too much seed?:

If you can't roll as many seed bombs as you've collected seeds , join our seed circle and trade your collected seeds for other varieties you may not have heard of yet.