Collecting Seeds From My Native Wildflower Garden!!

I like to collect some seeds from my native wildflower garden each year....This is my third year and this year is already off to a good start

I've been collecting sunflower heads and purple coneflower heads every 3-5 days since mid - june and I've got a nice sized amount collected. The flowering season for both plants is almost done but I've got more plants to start flowering at the end of summer. I'll will be posting those, too!!



So, to start, here's what a sunflower and purple coneflower look like




Basically these flowers heads have been sitting in bowls in my living room drying out since I cut them

Once they are fully dry, I can remove the seeds manually with my hands. The sunflowers will be easy and the purple coneflowers are more work


here's what I've collected


Here's some sunflower heads that are almost fully dry!!


here's some purple coneflower heads



I'll have some updates when I remove seeds and/or collect more flower heads from my Garden!

~ P E A C E ~ and thanks for looking!!!

 

^^^ I have no clue how to use the seeds for food or oil.... I don't think that this would be the right type of sunflower seed for food/oil. Mine are small to medum sized seeds...And this yr they are smaller than normal seeds because of high temps. in my area - like 104 degrees for 30 days!

There are other sunflowers [non-native to here] that produce pretty large seeds and would be better for this

Good idea though.....You'd just need the right sunflower!!

It would be cool to make my own sunflower seed butter!



And BTW, purple coneflower is also known as the herb echinacea purpurea ~ echinacea is a healing herb used to help get thru colds and the flu......

I'm sure there's some way I could harvest this myself..... but I never use echinacea

 

^^^^ they might end up being viable food for small animals in my area. After I collect all my seeds from this season, I'm going to put 75% of them down in an area I'm trying to make a wildflower area. [These plants are all drought tolerent and can grow in a wild space]

So, a big huge bag full of seeds in going on the ground in this 15 square foot area and any small animal is welcome to eat the seeds

I have rabbits and birds that may find and eat them!!!

 

So, Today I finally went thru the rest of the sunflower heads I collected!!
It takes some time to go thru 50 or so of them....

As you can see from the 1st pic below, these sunflower seeds are pretty small and are actually smaller this yr because of the crazy extreme dry heat we've been having. It's been like 105 degrees every day for over a month!!

The 2nd pic shows that the raw collection includes other parts of the flower head. It would take forever to seperate EVERY seed from this mixture so it will stay that way

Pic 3 is my big bag full of seeds!! I can't say for sure how many seeds are in this bag but there's at least 1,000. I'm pleased with my results but wish some of the seeds were larger like some were last year! It's going to take some time for me to remove seeds from all the purple coneflower heads I have lined up next........so,

~ P e a c e ~ and Thanks for looking!!

 

So, I finally got around to pulling the seeds out of my Purple Coneflower heads. It took a while because I had to use needle nose plyers to get them out! Plus, they are kind of pointy and sharp......But, similar to the sunflower seeds, this bag pictured below also has other parts of the flower head in it!

But, there's plenty of seeds in the bag! These seeds are also a little smaller than usual because of the crazy heat we had this year!
Pic below!!

I'll have some more seeds to collect after some plants flower in the fall!!

 

^^^^ I'm a fan of the sunflower, too! Everyone who sees mine is usually pretty impressed! My tallest one this yr is 8 ft tall! They're great to have around! They attract a variety of insects and I've even seen birds grab onto the plant and pull seeds out of the flowerheads!They actually grow wild around here. Open fields with very dry soil are usually full of them. I can drive around in my area and see large numbers of them. I didn't buy these, either. They showed up on my property....

The purple coneflowers are not always available. It's usually something that is available early in the season but gone by the later part of the season. They also attract insects and like i stated above, this plant is also an herb called echinacea which is used in herbal medicine

Thanx for your interest!

 

Thanks! Generally, you can collect the flowerhead after it has lost it's petals. Remove the flowerheads and set them indoors in a large bowl until they are dry....this usually takes 3-4 weeks

Here's a pic of a bee on one of my Sunflowers!!

 

So, I've been collecting some more seeds recently. This is the last wildflower that will go to seed this year

It's called Turk's Cap and it is native to Texas. These produce little fruits that look like cherries. I am not storing these in a bag....I'm putting them on the ground in an area where I want them to grow

There's 3 pics below..... 1~ bowl of cherry-like fruits that have a seed inside.... 2~ Ripe fruit on the plant.... 3~ Turk's Cap flowering

This is a great wildflower! It blooms from may to november.... It is very drought tolerant.....And hummingbirds and butterflies feed on it!!