by Susan Klatz Beal

Created on: January 18, 2009

As a gardener, the entire experience associated with having a garden is incredibly fulfilling and satisfying. There is little that compares to the satisfaction of seeing things sprout, grow and ultimately bloom when you planted the seeds for the blooming flowers yourself. Many flowers produce seeds after the flower has bloomed.

Harvesting seeds from the flowers that you've planted can be every bit as rewarding as the experience of watching your seeds sprout, grow and bloom. Saving seeds is one of the ways in which gardening can be very economical even when people are facing horrible economic hardship.

Here are some explanations of how the seeds on a selected list of flowers form. I will also explain how you can identify them and how to go about harvesting the seeds once they are ripe.

Some flowers produce seeds that form directly from the flower head. With these types of flowers, it is necessary to leave the flower head on the plant so that the seeds can mature and ripen. Other flowers such as Hibiscus and Rose of Sharon produce pods that grow and mature after the flower falls off the plant. The seed pod remains on the plant and grows larger. When it finally reaches its fully mature size, the pod will start to ripen and dry out.

With flowers like cosmos, zinnia, marigold, coreopsis, calendula, all types of daisies, any flowers in the Rudebekia family, and even canna lilies, the seeds will form right where the flower is. For these flowers, in order to get seeds, you must leave the flower on the plant. Leaving the flower on the head goes contrary to what people think they need to do to keep their flowers blooming.

Normally, it's important to deadhead flowers after the flower has bloomed. Dead-heading flowers may promote more blooms, but it stops the seed producing process before it starts. It isn't possible to deadhead flowers and still harvest seeds.

Cosmos, daisies, coreopsis, marigolds, zinnias, calendula, and similar flowers produce seeds that tend to be dark in color, and long and narrow. These seeds are generally found in the area inside the flower head, right around where the pollen center is. They are long and thin. Once the flower head has completely dried, you should be able to pick off the flower head and have the seed fall out easily.

With canna lilies and flowers like four o'clock, the seed looks like a dark black ball. The canna seed is slightly larger than that on a four o'clock. After the flower has bloomed, the spent bloom typically falls off all by

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