First on the echinops: the flower head turns grey and the pods fall off. Inside the hairy kimonos are the wheat colored seeds - one seed per coat. It's a peg about 1/4 inches long. It's important to note that not all the seeds are viable, so collect plenty.

Purple coneflower dries and little wheat colored pegs fall out from between the blackened spikes. You can just shake these out when they are ripe.

As for hollyhocks - look at it this way, ma nature has released the seed for her own sowing, so I don't see why you can't as well. They also work very well winter sowing. Consider joining us on the winter sowing forum.

Email if you need more help.

Hi Everyone,
Sorry if this is yet another question that everyone has heard a thousand times, but I'm new here. :) I bought a hollyhock and expected it to be pink, but it's a really deep maroon. I'd love to save some seeds for next year. I've been reading the posts about looking for a pod after it dries. So I went out to the garden and took a few blooms that had fallen to the ground and had a botany 101 class at my dining room table. I don't see any seeds anywhere. Would it still be on the stalk? What are mericarps? Thanks so much!

Lavendrfem,

Once the flowers fall off a pod of sorts (I'm assuming this is the mericarp) forms in its place on the stalk. It sort of looks like another flower is going to form. This is where the seeds are. You'll have to be patient, as it takes some time for that to form and then dry out. Once it's dried it does sort of start to open up on it's own. You can collect them while still on the stalk or cut the pods off and separate after. Each one of these pods must have about 25 - 40 seeds, very easy to collect. I have my first hollyhocks this year (nigra), grew them from seed and it took two years to get to flowering age. They are beatiful and produce so many seeds!

Good luck collecting.

Jenny

Re: Hollyhocks-I've already sown hollyhock seeds and the seedlings are up and growing. I figure that since they're biennials, this gives them a jump start on next year. I do the same with foxglove. This imitates the way Mother Nature would do it.