butterfly bush seed picture

Can someone please show me a picture of where the seeds are on this plant? I don't know where to collect the seeds off my plant.

Thanks a bunch

I just read that they were like dust! I just crumble up the entire cone and hope that I have some of the seeds there. I haven't tried them from my seeds yet, so I'm not sure that is a good idea. Maybe someone else with more experience will give you better information!

Here's a link to a seed database that Happenstance posted on another thread: http://theseedsite.co.uk/db3.html I know how frustrating it is to try to decide what is actually the seed on some plants! This is a really good reference site.

Thanks so much Roshana. I'll check out the site for more info.

Teresa

If you look real close at this pic you will see what appears to be green grains of rice. That is the seeds.
Hope this helps

Are they on the blooming flowers while in bloom or after the bloom turns brown? I'm just not understanding this at all. I'm sorry for being so ignorant about this.

These should appear after the flower dies. Leave the flower heads on the mother plant until you start seeing these "rice" looking things. That is your seeds.

You're GREAT MollyBee. Thanks again. I think I've GOT IT this time.

It was my pleasure. Knowing I helped you with the ID makes me smile :D

Mollybee...Got your seeds today. Cleome and jobs tears>
Thanks for all you do.

:) Glad to hear it.
Hope you enjoy them as much as I have.
I just love seed trading!

Hope they do well for you.

Ummm, actually the green rice things are the seed pods. The actuall seeds are long thin, almost hair thin things that look like helicopter propellers. A spoon full of them resembles dust.

I forgot to also say, they are very easy from seed and benefit from a cold treatment. If you leave them on the plant through a cold month or two, germination is quick and easy. :)

That's a good idea about leaving the seeds on the plant through the first couple of cold months. And, since the seeds are really inside the rice things, do you open the pods and take out the seeds to plant them or just plant the pod? Thanks.

Thank you everyone for your input and assistance. This site is so great.

Roshana, If you let the pods on the bush until they are very dry, they will ripen themselves and they will just shake out, avoiding the chaff that comes from trying to get them out. I usually watch them carefully and when a few pop open, I cut the rest of the seed heads and bring them inside to finish drying inside, and they will all pop open by themselves, and you can just shake the clean seed out. (yes, it looks like hair with a dot in it, but they are easy to grow, and great to winter sow!) Hope this helps!! Legit

Thanks, Legit. I harvested a couple of different varieties last week and they looked pretty dry. But they are drying out even more as I type! I'll do some test shaking off and on until they just fall out. That will be so much better than what I had previously done, which was just crush the whole thing and hope for the best! I've never tried to grow them though. I'll try WS them this winter and cross my fingers.

This is a picture of a dried bloom stalk from my buddleia. Note the inserted pictures of a seed that came from it and the same seed with the dried flower still attached.

This message was edited Jun 7, 2004 12:14 PM

You can wait for the pods to turn brown and cut off the plant. When it's dry enough, you can rub the whole "bloom stalk" (I'm not sure what they call it) with the pods attached between your hands over a pot of dirt. You can then just leave it out over winter and in the spring you should start seening tiny little flecks of green which will probably be seedlings. Don't pull anything up untill they get really big and you can distinguish between weeds and the b-fly bushes.

They grow REALLY fast the first year and are definally one of the most rewarding things to grow from seed.

My purple butterfly bushes are at least 10' tall this year! I can't believe how much they have grown in the past few years.
I have found that keeping the deadheads clipped off and not letting them go to seed keeps them blooming all summer.
But usually when I am cutting them off I do find that they have seeds already forming on the dead stalk. So I'm sure I'll always have these things here in my garden.

Now if I could just get and grow a black knight butterfly bush this big....I'd be a happy camper oops I mean a happy gardener :)