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Cultivated flowers and wildflower seeds can be collected by hand.
Once the seed heads are dry and about to be scattered by the plant (usually from late summer to late autumn), they are ready for collection and should be placed into a paper or cloth bag to help take away any remaining moisture.
Once collected the seed will need to be cleaned using a fine sieve and gently blowing over them to remove the light chaff. Once cleaned and dried thoroughly, the seeds can then be bagged, labelled and stored. Paper bags or envelopes are fine to use, just keep them in a cold dry place.
When kept in ideal conditions most seeds will keep for three to five years. Viability of the seed and the possibility of getting flowers from the seed decrease with age.
If you want to keep your seeds for a long time store them in the following climate:
Mainly commercially produced seeds are kept in the above climate to produce a high yield.
Some gardeners pop their seeds into fridges, or cold garages and sheds during the winter ready for sowing in the spring, by popping seeds into the fridge you are imitating winter, some seeds need to go through a cold or frozen period to be able to germinate. Storing them this way still gives the average gardener enough seeds that will germinate and create a wonderful flowering display during the Summer months.
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