Plant seeds – collect, dry & decorate

Collected – knowing how

The variety of plant seeds is incredible: tiny black spheres, bright and juicy berries, grains with silky flying hairs, or chocolate-brown, shiny structures. They're all harvestable! All you need is newspaper and scissors, as well as small paper bags or sealable jars for storing the seeds. Collect seeds only from healthy, strong plants. Often, just gently tapping the dry seed heads is enough to ensure the ripe seeds land directly in the bag or jar. Or you can cut off entire stalks and stems, which, just to be on the safe side, are hung upside down on a line for a few days to dry – individually or in bundles. Then, tap the seeds loosely on a piece of newspaper. If the seeds come loose easily, break up the plant parts a little and collect the seeds with tweezers.
Tip: Using a kitchen or tea strainer, you can easily separate the tiny seeds, such as those of poppy or columbine, from larger plant remains.

Fancy a harvest lottery?

When bagging the seeds, don't forget to note what you've collected! Making your own labels or sticking pictures on the bags makes collecting even more fun. If you like, you can play the harvest lottery and collect seeds from many different summer flowers in one bag. Mixing these seeds together promises unique, colorfully mixed beds next year. Store the seeds in a cool, dry place until sowing. Tip: Add a few grains of rice to the seeds as a natural desiccant. Rice draws out any remaining moisture from the seeds. To do this, heat the rice grains in the oven for about 45 minutes and then let them cool. To be on the safe side, mix three parts rice grains to one part seeds.

From wonderful super seeds

Only a few plants can be propagated from truly pure varieties, but they still produce beautiful flowers. Most cultivated varieties today are so-called F1 hybrids. They are the first offspring of two crossed varieties and are thus, so to speak, super seeds; they possess certain desirable characteristics such as color, flower shape, and health, and sometimes even the fragrance of both parents. Unfortunately, their offspring usually look different from the parent plants – but that doesn't have to dampen the joy of your own homegrown plants. Just be surprised. The safest and fastest results are achieved by sowing annual and biennial summer flowers – such as poppies, lady's mantle, sunflowers, foxgloves, forget-me-nots, and mullein. Even uncomplicated perennials such as wild carnation, lady's mantle, or columbine are easy to sow – and often even sow on their own.

Tip:Before sowing next spring, test the germination of your homegrown seeds. It's quick and easy. Simply place the seeds in a glass of water; whatever sinks to the bottom is fine and can be sown.

All natural: chocolate brown & cappuccino colors

The dry flower and seed heads, umbels, capsules, and pods in mocha, café crème, and cappuccino shades are bizarre beauties with a natural charm. The late harvest from nature and the garden holds some curiosities. Although their blossoms and colors have long since disappeared, many a stem and stalk emerges as real eye-catchers. What's left of the summer is transformed indoors into autumnal decorative arrangements with a natural look. Presented in vases, bottles, or simply in shallow bowls, the puristic plant parts are beautifully displayed. The effort is minimal, but the effect is sometimes all the more astonishing. The art lies in the staging of the simple. In the transition from autumn to winter, when it becomes quieter outside, the natural tones fit wonderfully into our living spaces with cozy blankets, wood in the fireplace, the smell of warm tea and coffee, and candlelight. Goodbye dreariness – hello to coziness in brown, beige, and gray!

TEXT: Martina Raabe