Need any advice on how to save Bee Balm Seeds!

I have three different colours of Bee Balm this year - red, pink and lavender. I would like to save some seeds for my neighbours. Does anyone know how to collect the seeds, when to do it and when to plant them again? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

I may not get back to you right away as I'm up to my eyeballs in life but I will try to watch this thread several times each day. I'm not ignoring just caught up in responsbilities.

LOL procrastinator you posted this directly above my post asking basically the same question. I know where to find the seed http://theseedsite.co.uk/db14a.html (see monarda) but I'm not sure how long it takes for them to ripen. Hopefully someone will come along and set us both straight ;-)

I just recently harvested seeds from my dying flower heads. I waited until the flower petals had dropped off and the remaining flower was brown and dry. Also the stem directly below the flower was brown and dried up.

I cut them off and held them over a white paper towel. I kinda squished the the flower and tapped it on the paper towel. That released some of the seeds, but then I ran my finger (or you could use a spoon or knife) through the flower and out popped a bunch more seeds. The dried flower can be sharp in some spots, so be careful you don't stab your finger.

Here is a photo of what the seeds look like. Good luck! Just make sure that they are brown and dried up before removing them from the plant. Otherwise, they may not be ready.

My seeds came from light pink Monarda. I am looking for seeds for the red flowering cultivar. I would love to do a trade with anyone who has red! D-mail me. Thanks!

Here is a photo of my pink blooming Bee Balm.

becky- if I'm lucky enough to get the seeds ( and I should be thanks to your advice) I will gladly send you some at the end of our growing season. I'm in zone 5 a. You are lucky enough to be in sunny Florida.


Lala_Jane - Thanks for the Hyperlink. It was helpful. I had no idea you didn't harvest the seeds from the actual seedhead. That was really helpful. I would have been pretty disappointed if I had tried to save the seeds from the head. Funny we were thinking the same thing at the same time about the post. Ooo-Ooo-Ooo. Sure hope your brain doesn't work the same way mine does all the rest of the time or -Girl I feel sorry for you. Tee hee. Thanks for the info!


Hugs Elaine

How long before the seeds produce plants that bloom? Will they produce the next summer?
Kathy

That's a good question Kathy. I didn't get blooms on mine until the 2nd year. And of course, once you get blooms, you get seeds from those blooms. I do know others here on DG who are in their 3rd year growing them and still haven't gotten any blooms. Perhaps fertilizer or soil issues. I have mine growing in some rich soil that I fertilized with Osmocote. Maybe others here can give their experience growing them.

Wow, Jane, i wish I'd known about that site when i had all my NOID wintersown seedlings! That's great.

xxxx. Carrie

Can you plant the seeds this year? I have some that I need to collect and sow. Or do I need to wait until Spring?

Wintersow, wintersow, wintersow.

Yeah! wintersowing is sooooo great!

I just harvested my red Monarda seed and would like to thank Lala Jane for the Hyper link. At least I can exercise my brain when I can't sleep. Keep my laptop by the bed and jot down in spiral notebook, (haven't mastered THE JOURNAL) yet. Would anyone like to try lilac seed? I just harvested mine as I was deadheading this years dead bloom clusters. Thia is the old fashioned single blossom one, very fragrant.
Gramma Mittsy

I'd love to try your Lilac seeds, Mittsy!

Does anyone else notice RED monarda is shorter than PINK monarda???

xxx, Carrie

Hey Carrie! I've not run into you in awhile, it's good to "see you". I don't have the pink, but hopefully that will change next year.

And you are very welcome Mittsy :D

I harvested the first of my monarda last week, but in going through the seed heads I'm finding very few seeds. Hopefully I was just a little early and the ones I get this week will prove more fruitful.

If anyone has extra seeds, I would love to try fall planting them.
Teresa

Please, does anyone else notice a difference in heights?

xx, C

I don't have both to compare. :-(

My purple(lavender) last year was 5' tall and my Raspberry was about 24"-30". I like the shorter better.

Yeah, I like shorter because I can reach them to deadhead or whatever.

x, C

I like the shorter because of the naked legs. The tall ones don't look as good because of such distance between ground and bloom. Yes you could plant something in front of it but the shorter is just neater looking.

None of mine are 5 feet tall!!!! My dingbat DH plants things willy-nilly without ASKING without knowing how TALL something's gonna be; he's got NO respect whatsoever. So I have some tall pink ones in the front with shorter red ones next to them and the same situation in the back, but I never compared the back pink to the front pink, so I don't know. I do know I should get seed soon, if I'm going to. I also have some 'Cambridgeview Scarlet' which are still in a pot and had no chance to bloom, but if I get around to planting them (soon, one hopes!) then maybe I'll have some (short?) different red ones next year. LOL!

xx, Carrie

OK (huff puff) back from Plantfiles. It's called Cambridge Scarlet and is listed at 2 - 3 feet.

x, C