|
Yesterday was such a beautiful day here in Southern Michigan, the sun was shinning, the leaves were magnificent and you didn’t need a jacket! We won’t have too many more of those days so we chose to take advantage of the outdoors.
As we walked around our yard and woods I noticed my now browned morning glories. Slowly I began picking of few of the seed heads and removing the seeds into my hand. Well, before you know it we were going into the house for small containers to gather more seeds. This year I had an incredible about of morning glories due to my Grandma who is an incredible seed saver! Almost every year she gives me little envelopes and containers labeled foxglove, columbine or morning glory. This last year she gave me TONS of morning glory. So much that I kind of just threw them in here and there because I ran out of places to put them! The ones on the vegetable garden fence did the best because they got watered regularly.
 
Once Lexie (my 9 year old) and I got going on morning glories there was no stopping. Seed gathering can be kind of addictive! We moved on to balloon flowers, pink coneflowers and hibiscus. (The pictures were obviously the morning glories and hibiscus before the frost!)
If you live in the Midwest it’s probably about seed saving time! The best time to get them is when they are dry on the plant. If you get them too early they are still “green” and don’t come off as easily. Most of the time you can let them dry out right on the plant and then just rub with your fingers and the seeds will literally fall into your waiting container. Don’t forget to leave some on your plant or drop some there so you’ll have more volunteers next year! You don’t want to wait until moist snow (or weeks of rain) set in because they can get moldy and damp.
 hibiscus seed pod
When you do pick them if they are not quite hardened (a little green and slightly soft yet) just dry them out for a few days before storing. You can lay them out on newspaper or even just have them in your oven with the pilot light on for awhile (this is what my Grandma does.)
I had to call Grandma yesterday, as picking seeds makes me think of her! She lives 2 hours north of us and it has been wet there so she’d been trying to dry some in the oven. Mine are mostly ready though some of the morning glories I may spread out on newspapers for a few days.
For more information on saving seeds go to seed savers website. This link gives you a search box where you can put in the flower or vegetable seed you're interested in saving and it tells you how.
If you are interested in morning glories or bright pink hibiscus leave a comment with your email and I can mail you some (US only please.) This of course is while my excess supply lasts!
| 
