Paula
The verbena seeds if not matured will not produce. You can tell if they are ready to be pulled because the flower head will turn brown. I dead head my verbena during the summer, but as of next month I'll start to allow them to go to seed to save the seeds for next years growing. I just noticed you are in zone 5 and I am in zone 7, we get our first frost here either towards the end of October or early November, that will make all the difference in the world for seed saving.
I hope this helps.
Alberta

So how long after the flower drops should I pluck off the seed head? Should I wait for the whole thing to turn brown or should I snip it off when the thing is still green. Thanks

Paula

Hi Paula,
You need to wait for the whole flower to turn brown. You could dead head some, but leave a few that are the least conspicuous to turn brown and save seeds from them.
Remy

Ok so after the flower falls off it is safe to cut off the seed head or should I wait a few days. I thought I had to wait until the whole thing (where the flower was) to turn brown to cut to harvest the seeds. The flowers have been off on my plants (not all of them) for around 1 1/2 weeks now. So if I cut off the seed pods and harvest the seeds now they will produce flowers next year. Thanks for the help

Paula

Paula,
You have to wait for where the flowers were to turn brown.
Remy

Lol, now I'm confused. I've noticed that the part where the flower comes out of will be tightly closed if it hasn't bloomed yet, then it flowers and opens and when the flowers die off, it's very opened and spread out. THAT is the part that has to turn brown right? About how long after the flowers fall off does that take? It seems like mine are taking forever to turn brown once the flowers fall.
I'm in zone 6, should I stop dead heading soon?

So how long after the flower drops should I pluck off the seed head? Should I wait for the whole thing to turn brown or should I snip it off when the thing is still green. Thanks

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The length of time you need to wait will vary from one type of plant to another and also with the weather. Seeds develop faster in dry sunny weather. You really just need to go out and check to see if the seed pods have developed or if there is ripe seed present. I've not saved seed from verbena, so I'm not familiar with it's time frame or the appearance of the seed-release mechanism.

Martha

I was also curious about this, so I did two things. I Googled what the seeds should look like and I went outside and snipped off a small amount of heads. One chunk was very brown and dried out and the other was mostly brown, but still had a very little bit of yellowish green in them. Here's what I found. If you wait too long (to the point of it being completely brown and dried, you won't get much as far as seeds go. (See picture 1) Your best bet is when the pods are mostly brown and dried out, but while they still look fat. (See picture 2) I also had a couple pods that were still mostly a light green. (See picture 3) The seeds look very immature. I'm going to let them dry out and see how planting goes next year! Hope this helps a little! 

So how did the verbena plants do with the seeds you harvested last year? I want to harvest this year. Also if flowers were picked and put into cases for a week or two to enjoy, are those good to harvest seed from as well?

Wow this is an old thread. Ok so what I have discovered with verbena seeds is after the flowers fade and the pods have aged anywhere from 2 weeks to a month while dead heading or collecting seeds what I do now is feel the seed head and if there is a hardness to it depending on what the pod looks like about to burst or browned a bit then I collect the seedhead. This is how I tell if the seeds are ready or not. If the seedhead is soft and lower down on the branch if that makes sense then I cut off. The higher on the branch the fresher the blooms. And with this method I have gotten a lot of germination on collected seeds. And if the seeds are green they are not ripe.a tinge of green is ok but the more brown the better.

Seeds collected from cut flowers don't usually have the chance to mature to proper stage. So it best not to try and collect from cut flowers.