This year, the California poppies in our garden were insanely beautiful. They self-seeded everywhere, tending to find the worst soil at the edges of the garden, hence this picture above (taken about a month ago) of mostly borage and salvias, with the poppies peeping over the back, in a patch of neglected mulch next to the train shed.
Now, the poppies have mostly gone over and set seed. Many will self-seed again for next year’s display, but I also like to collect a good deal of seed to give as gifts, or spread in other areas of the garden. Collecting the seed couldn’t be easier.
I just pull out the plants, and make a big pile. Then I methodically go through the pile, choosing the plumpest, driest seed pods (the ones that haven’t dried completely and already burst open). I pull them off and place them in a parchment bag. I like these:
These bags are quite large, about a gallon maybe, and hold a lot of seeds. After filling, I crimp the bag tightly at the top to keep the seeds safe; when the pods dry, they spring open and scatter the seeds, so if the top is open they go every which-way. Because the bag is paper, it allows for air to freely circulate and dry the seeds. If you store them in plastic, they will likely rot. Another thing I’ve done in the past is put them in a glass, quart-sized Ball canning jar, and used cheesecloth to cover the opening.
Here they are, as I’m starting to fill up the bag. After I’ve saved as many as I like, and crimped the top, I put the bag in the house in a cool, dry spot so that the seeds have a change to dry out completely and burst. Once they pop, I can take out the dried seed pods easily, saving the collected seed at the bottom to scatter in the garden next fall or winter.
Nature has some brilliant designs, and watching (and hearing) these seeds dry, then spring open to release the seeds high into the air, is fascinating. Lupines do the same sort of thing. I’ve collected lupine seed from my hikes before (shhh, don’t tell anyone, you’re supposed to have a permit for such things) and stored it similarly in paper bags on the piano. One night, Tom and I kept hearing a rustling in the corner while we were watching TV. We were convinced that a rat had somehow gotten in the house, and kept pausing the TV and searching around the room for the rodent. Imagine our chagrin when we realized the sound we were hearing was just the lupine seeds popping open in their paper bag.