I want to save some columbine seeds, as I've had a few requests for them. I don't know where to get the seeds from, exactly.. but I'm gonna take a guess..

are they inside the closed up used up flower in this photo? Do I have to wait till it's like, dried out, to collect them??


Meg

Wait until it's dried out and brown Meg!!!

That is an awesome colored columbine..

Weezie

So, that little piece that looks closed up after the petals fell off.. that's where the seeds are? And I just gotta wait for them to dry out & turn brown.. cool.

I love the color too.. didn't know what they'd be till they bloomed.. I got them the end of last year and they were pretty much compact to the ground for fall & winter..

Thanks Weezie!

Yep!!!

Yep Meg - that will turn brown and hard.
But... as I told TK in an earlier message, you do want to watch them, because the top of the seed pod is open when dry and the seeds will scatter in the wind if you don't gather them first! It does take a while for them to turn brown and dry.

My columbines are just forming their buds - looks like a while before I'll see blooms. This has been such an awfully cold spring! :p

Cool Lynne, I'll be checking them daily anyways.. so if I see them kinda opening up with the seeds, I'll shake em out into a baggie or something.

Meg

Meg... I just had to say how gorgeous those flowers are again -
I cannot get over the blues!!!
They look so soft, and cool, and... beautiful!
What a great find!

hi Meg,

thanks for asking that ,was wondering how also.that s a beautiful one i doooo agree.

thanks to tk and Lynne for your help.

have a good one.

my columbine has finally lost the little curly que on the top of the seed pod but it is still green. I'm reminded of the watched pot that never boils.

could that be anymore beautiful!


Linda

My columbine is trying to be sneaky. Rather than the entire seed pod going brown the individual pods are going brown and opening one at a time.

Will someone please tell me how I can out smart it.

I'm not sure if this is normal for the columbine. But the smaller pods did not make any mature seeds. So next time after it blooms would it be best to take the smaller pods and clip them off? The large pods make lots of mature seeds.

Usually, I find, if collecting seeds, that the smaller ones are not as vigorous come germ time the next season. I usually just collect the larger ones and leave the rest. Just my two cents worth. Lovely lovely columbine btw. Good luck.

This is what Columbine seed pods looks like. The seeds will stay inside the base of the pod if it remains upright... & it only takes a slight breeze (or 1 cat stalking through the flower bed!) for them to lean over & empty out, so if you want to save them you have to catch them before Mother Nature does!

You'll also hear them rattle when they're ready. Those are the loveliest columbines, Meg, by the way , how'd you do ? Did you collect any seeds?

Dodge,

Columbine are a short lived perennial surviving about 7 years. So chances are that your plants just died of old age. I hope you can find some more of those colors.

tkhooper,
Thanks for telling me......
i didn't know that....However I got a slew growing for me, from someone elses seeds.
7 years of happiness.

Thanks for telling me.

dodge