The beautiful flowers you enjoyed throughout the summer and early fall have a gift for you.

As the flowers start losing their color, you will see cone shapes that evolve from the middle of the flowers like these Zinnias.

Simply cut off these tips as the flowers fade and dry them in a container. You can use the flats that the annuals came were in when you bought the plants in spring.

When they are dry, remove the old flower pedals and you will have an enlarged acorn shape batch of seeds.

Store them in a paper bag or something that will allow the seed heads to dry thoroughly and not mold. In the spring, simply break apart each head and you will have many seeds for you to start in cell packs from last year’s annuals.

You can also just plant the seeds in your flower beads and they will bloom just a little later than started earlier in cell packs.

Remember to try to select seeds from different heads to get different colors, shapes and size of plants. A good tip keep in mind is top reuse different pots, packs and trays for different needs for each season.

Joe Pastor

President