The Best flower Seeds to Save for Beginners

Saving seeds from annual flowers can be both easy and such a great way to help yourself out when it comes to your garden budget. If you have never saved seeds, it is an easy thing to start doing this next garden season. I have written about the best flower seeds to save from annual flowers. They are easy for beginners and loved by avid gardeners too.

If you are anything like me, your dreams could spend half of your monthly budget in the nursery come spring or on seed catalogues during the winter months. Since that isn’t reality and I love to have a lot of flowers in my garden, I have started to save my own flower seeds. By starting my own seeds, I am able to have many more annual flower varieties in my garden along with saving money from not buying so many starts at the nursery.

Annual flowers are great on their own or added into a vegetable garden. Many repel pests, bring in pollinators, and brighten up a yard. The list of flowers below are all very easy to collect seeds from to be planted the following year.

Why Save Annual flower Seeds?

Annual flowers are such great additions to have in the garden. They only last a year and are usually very easy to collect a large amount of seeds from.

Saving seeds will save you money.

Saving seeds will also give you plants that are just right for your own little micro climate of your yard or farm. If you are collecting seeds from you best flowers, each year your seed stock will be come stronger and more suited for exactly where you are.

What are the best flower seeds to save?

I have found that when you are just starting out with seed saving, there are certain varieties of flowers that are much easier to save seeds from.

Read on below to find out my top six annual flower seeds to start with when it comes to saving seeds.

Nasturtiums
Marigold
Calendula
Sunflower
Poppy
Zinnia

Nasturtiums

These garden favorites are what started flower seed saving for me. And it wasn’t even on purpose. One day I was walking by the nasturtiums overflowing near the tomato plants. (They are great companion plants) I noticed that the seeds were just falling out and landing right on the ground. Since the seeds are pretty big, it was easy to scoop them up. I realized I could pick them off while still green or wait for them to fall when dry. The plants were so successful that year, I was able to bag up the seeds and give away as gifts along with saving enough for my garden the next year. The more brown they are, the better for seed saving.

Marigold

Last year I found out that marigolds are also super easy to save. I grew up with a mother and grandmother saying how important it was to deadhead these flowers. While it certainly looks best, you can’t save seeds if you toss all the spent flower heads. Some people will deadhead and then drop them right there in the plants. If you do it this way, the flowers will most likely grow in the same place each season as volunteers. But I like to plant them in and around the garden veggies. So, I let some of the biggest flowers dry out on the plant. I then picked them and pulled out the seeds from the top. (see picture below). After pulling out the seeds, I laid them on a paper towel for a few days/weeks to make sure they were fully dry before putting them away.

to save zinnia seeds pull the dried flower right out

Calendula

With the calendula plant, you want to let some of the best flowers stay on the plant past their prime. They need to dry out all the way to develop the seeds. I have picked some calendula flowers from a friend’s plant before it was dried out. Some of the seeds were developed, but if it had been dry, I would have had a much better harvest. As always, make sure the seeds are completely dry before storing. In the picture below you can see the seeds are developed but still green. If you can wait until they are more dry and brown, that is best, but you can pick at this green stage and dry inside if needed.

Sunflower

Sunflowers come in many different varieties and are very easy to save seeds from. You will want to make sure you leave your sunflowers out to dry all the way. The petals will have fallen off and the head of the sunflower will be falling over and brown when ready. If the weather turns bad before your sunflowers are completely dry, you can cut them off and bring them inside or on a covered porch area. Make sure they are laid flat in a very dry area.

Mine molded one time when I left them in a cardboard box on top of each other. After the flower is totally dry, you can scrape out the seeds that are below the dried part of the flower. It can take awhile and is easiest when the flower is as dry as can be. But its worth it for the free seeds for next season.

drying sunflowers for seeds, they are the best to save seeds from

Poppy

Before I knew better on how to save seeds, I was going crazy with random poppies coming up in my yard. Their seeds must have traveled by the wind or animal into the yard and while the flowers were pretty, they were not coming up where I wanted them. So I ripped them all out and threw them away. Oh, how I wish I had known! The seed heads of poppies are so easy to collect. Once again, you just let them dry out before picking. The petals will all fall off and you will be left with a fun round seed pod.

If you shake it, you will hear all the seeds shaking around. It is full of the tiny black seeds of poppies. These are the seeds that can be saved to use in the kitchen for baking or saved for next year’s garden. If the seed pod is dry, then the seeds will be dry enough to store away after taking them inside.

Zinnia

I have not had the ideal growing conditions as far as space for many zinnias yet, but for the few I have grown, I have been able to save some seeds. It is best to let some of your best flowers dry on the plant to pull seeds from. But if you are wanting specific colors to save and you have a variety growing, you are able to cut those flowers and dry them inside either handing upside down or in an open space with good airflow. The seeds will pull right out of the flower head when dry.

That’s all there is to flower seed saving

Saving flower seeds can really be simple. I love saving flower seeds from my garden to use the next year and also to give as gifts. And I have also been known to give away seeds as friends are walking through the garden. As we are walking, I pull some seeds off of drying out flowers or herbs and give them right then. I hope it gives them as much joy as it does me.