Hi!
I'm new to DG - and have some pretty purple coneflowers that I purchased from a local nursery about a month ago. I really want to collect the seed, and I'm not sure when/what is the best way to go about it. Several of the flowers have drooped, and the center is quite hard, so I wasn't sure if I cut them now before the birds discover it or not.
Any help is greatly appreciated!
Hugs,
Erin
Best Way to Harvest Coneflower Seeds and When?
I usually wait until later in the year closer to fall. I wait until the bloom stalk starts turning brown right under the cone. I just cut them off with scissors and I pick the seeds out on top of a paper towel. It's just like a miniature version of a sunflower head. The little seeds are arranged in a similar pattern too. I keep the seeds in zip/lock baggies in the veggie drawer in the fridge.
I have noticed that after I deadhead my echs, it seems as if the heads go to seed over in a pile where I throw them. I haven't actually taken the time to inspect them but in the back of my mind I was planning to take a look around Fall timeframe :) just to see if I wanted anything over there to keep. Do they do that or is that just a surface observance that upon further inspection I would find nothing to keep? Just curious. I thought about plunking a few in the ground to see what comes up next year. Wish I had more room for experimentation, say 50 acres or so. :)
Hey, I'm not greedy.
Thanks so much for the info! Hopefully the birds won't steal them all before then. I appreciate it!
Hugs,
Erin
Erin - Keep your eyes out for those gold finches. I lost so many hybrid Echinacea seeds to those sneaky birds. LOL. I now have some plants that I leave just for the birds though. They are now raising their young in my birdhouses too!
LOL! Nothing sneaky about my goldfinches. They are bold and beautiful! You should see them fly out of the gardens in the front yard when we pull into the driveway...Shameless!
Drats! I hope my plants last that long. They are really turning brown and crispy on the edges of the leaves and moving inward....The flowers look good, but the leaves not so much.
Is it possible to cut the flowers off sooner than the fall? I have some blooming right now that started about 3 wks ago..I'll be moving the first week of Aug and would love to take some of the seed with me.
Funny thing is- I didn't plant this flower and never had any in the yard till this year..and it's growing in a huge flowerpot that I had Mexican Petunia and Gold(en?) Globes in.. When they started to bloom, I thought I don't remember them looking like that! Then it hit me that it really WAS purple coneflower! I think maybe the birds "helped" with the planting!