I have saved tons of seeds of various clematis types, garden balsam, nigella, cardoon, and several other types of flowers. No big secrets except to wait until they are mature and then allow them to dry well, especially if you are storing them in plastic bags. Otherwise, they might mold if not sufficiently dry.

I have my brandywine seeds drying outside, to get rid of the darned fruit flies. The bean pods are drying on the vines. I saved quite a few flower seeds earlier: 1 cup of poppy seeds, some larkspurs, orange cosmos, purple mallow, lots of crackerjack marigolds, columbines. I should harvest some Echinacia seed heads...What else can I save?? lol.

Nancy.

Save them all!!

New gardeners are always coming aboard and like the tried and true (marigold, zinnias, cosmos). Even if you don't plan to sow or trade seeds, many make lovely decorations. Strawberry popcorn with its husk pulled back looks cute on a Christmas tree, as do Sweetgum balls in their natural color or spray painted. Northern sea oats are pretty in a small vase. Okra pods and purple majesty millet spikes are very pretty in arrangements. Donate seeds to area organizations such as Master gardeners or school horticultural classes, tuck small packets into Christmas or other special occasion cards.

I love saving, trading for, and giving away seeds.

Save them all!!

One year I got some fabulous dried leek heads from a neighbour. I sprayed them gold. Very pretty.

Libby

I've spray painted Queen Anne's Lace seed heads after removing the seeds and flattening them, the seed heads usually curl up in a ball. I did them in black, copper and white. The white ones looked like giant snowflakes.

Annette

I have Cherokee Trail of Tears pole bean, Kwintus beans, Ky. Wonder beans, cosmos, gomphrena, petunia (old fashioned vining type), Yvonne's salvia, mid-size red salvia, still waiting on the zinnias and hyacinth beans, bronze fennel needs harvesting, tons of daylily seeds that I need to get planted asap. I do them in pots under the lights on the back porch and then plant them out in a nursery row in the garden until they bloom. I think that's it for now.

I finally got them all cleaned and bottled.

Tip: drop a some rice inside each pack to absorb moisture.

Tip: I just read where you should let your tomato seed ferment in water for several days; it kills the bacteria that carries all the leaf diseases. I have never done that but it is worth a try. I didn't have enough tomatoes this year to even attempt to save seeds.

I have done the same with echinops seedheads. I found that trying to spray paint them resulted in gloppy messes so then played around and found that if I took the paint and diluted it down with water, the seed heads could be dipped into the mixture, allowed to dry, and then redipped additional times to get the depth of color that I wanted. Here is a shot of a few of the echinops in a vase along with some cardoon seedheads that were not mature when I picked them.

Oh, gosh, like Plays in Dirt, I love to save them all! It lends a more positive aspect to this season when everything is dying or winding down. I also find it relaxing and the seed pods often quite beautiful and interesting. Besides, my family is finally accustomed to the assortment of containers with drying seeds ... all placed out of cat's reach, of course.

As for the tomato seeds, what I've read is that another purpose of the fermentation process (which does smell quite foul - I've tried it - tolerant as they are, family did not like that) is to remove the gel, which contains germination inhibitors. There's also a method using a chlorinated cleanser, but, honestly, other than that one fermentation experiment, I've not bothered with this process and yet had good results.

The dried seed heads of the allium 'Schubertii' are awesome - just like the flowers, they look like fireworks, some more than a foot in diameter.