A great way to get free flower seeds for next year is to pick seeds from your own flowers in the fall. After the flower blooms and dies back the seeds will form in the middle of the flower. When the seed pod is dried out but before it drops the seeds on the ground you should cut the stem of the flower and shake the seeds into a bag or on a newspaper. If they don’t come off easily you can rub the pods between your hands to get them to open up.

After gathering up the flower seeds you will need to let them dry out in the sun for a week or so. The best way to do this is to lay them out on newspaper in a sunny south facing window. You could do it outside but the seeds usually blow away outside. When you are sure the seeds are dry you can package them in a 2×3 inch zip lock bag. They are available at just about any craft store.

Try and get all the chaff and insects so you just have pure seeds. Make sure to label you bags and keep them out of the sun in a dry location until Spring. The flower seeds will keep until the next year or two so there is no hurry to use them up.

When spring comes you can get out your FREE seeds and decide where you want to plant them. It is a good idea to put them in the same conditions they grew so well in last year. If they were in the sun last year and did well don’t go sticking them in the shade this year. After a few years of doing this you will have a large amount of flower seeds on  hand every spring. You will only have to buy seeds when you see some new ones you don’t already have. Good Luck and Keep Gardening.