Harvesting Rudbeckia & Other Question

gardenwife Newark, OH(Zone 5b) Aug 07, 2001

I buy way too many plants and grow many from seed I've bought or received from friends, but I've never really tried to save seeds until this year.

My specific question right now is, how do harvest rudbeckia hirta seed? Do I need to protect the flower heads of those I wish to harvest? And how do you tell when rudbeckia seed is ready to harvest? I guess that's more than one question!

Also...Can anyone recommend sites and/or books which show what various plants look like when they are ready for their seed to be harvested, what the seed looks like for the particular plant, and how the new seeds should be stored? Most sites I've seen just say "propagate by division or by seed" or some other generalization.

TIA!
Kimberley

Post #10260

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poppysue Westbrook, ME(Zone 5a) Aug 08, 2001

Your best source will probably be the seed saving forum. There's some good information already posted about collecting a lot of different seeds. There was a string about rudbeckia last week http://davesgarden.com/showthread/67323.html

This one has a couple of links about seeds saving http://davesgarden.com/showthread/64547.html

When I'm in doubt about a flower - I save the whole flower head after it has dried. Some seeds are just so tiny you can't seperate them from the chaff. There are some pictures of the rudbeckia seed heads in the plants database. http://davesgarden.com/plants/go/25.html

Post #107159

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gardenwife Newark, OH(Zone 5b) Aug 09, 2001

Whoops - Aren't I in the seed saving forum? Rudbeckia Hirta -- How did I miss that entry when it was right under my nose here? I'm not even registering on the brainometer the last couple days.

Thanks so much for the info - that is very helpful!

:o) Kimberley

This message was edited Wednesday, Aug 8th 8:04 PM