My first step toward being a sustainable farmer, gardener really, started with my garlic. After I hosted a garlic tasting event, I set aside the three top favorite garlics so I can use them for planting this fall.

Now I am experimenting with saving flower seeds! Andy had the idea last year with his pumpkins and peppers, but it really didn’t go anywhere, and we weren’t sure how to properly save the seeds. With guidance from Floret Farms and their helpful online tutorials on seed saving for Zinnias, I took what I learned from their videos and apply it to my own garden.

I started harvesting the Queeny Lemon Peach and the Cut and Come Again Zinnias this week. I will do a second harvest next week and continue until we have our first frost.

Queeny Lemon Peach Flower Heads Drying on Breathable Cloth in the Potting Shed

The first step in harvesting is collecting the heads of the brown flowers. From the video, I learned you never want to harvest them if there is still any color in the petals. It is a test of patience to be sure! Once you snip the heads, they need to continue drying. That process takes about two weeks. Lay them out on breathable fabric or paper such as newsprint, or butcher block paper.

Once dry you will want to remove the seeds from the flower head. This is not necessarily a difficult process, but there are several steps including Threshing and cleaning. I’ve not done this yet so I’m going to save this along with the storing of the seeds for part two of Saving Seeds.

What I will include in this post are the supplies that Floret recommends:

Flower snips or pruners

Plastic bin or paper bag (for gathering the heads)

Breathable fabric or paper

Metal Mixing bowl (I didn’t want to use my good metal mixing bowls so I went to the ARC secondhand store and picked up a metal container that should do the trick)

Paper envelope or small cloth bag (used to store the seeds)

Permanent marker (for labeling)

When I set my first harvest of Zinnia heads on the breathable cloth to dry, I made a point of labeling the different varieties so that I would not get them mixed up as I thrashed and cleaned them.

Interestingly I learned that due to the nature of open pollination, the chances of the seeds coming back true to the parent flower are unlikely. When they pollinate bees move from flower to flower and so my Queeny Lemon Peach might have been pollinated by pollen from my Cut and Come Again Zinnias thus creating a mix. If I want to keep the flowers true, I will need to isolate them either by planting the different varieties at a distance from each other, or by netting them and introducing a pollinator under the netting.

As I’ve relied on Andy’s bees, the hummingbirds and butterflies to pollinate my flowers, the seeds I’m harvesting will be a mix no doubt. When I go to label the seeds, I’ve decided to call them Queeny Lemon Peach Surprise and Cut and Come Again Surprise! I really like the Queeny Lemon Peach Zinnia so I will purchase another packet of those seeds and try out the isolation technique next year!

Next up… Saving Zinnia Seeds (part two) ... probably in two weeks though because I have to give the Zinnias, I’ve harvested this week time to dry.

Saving Zinnia Seeds (Part one)

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