Hi Aubade, Well, there's a lot of things to address. I hope it all makes sense. : ) First, if you plant a bunch of different named cultivars of marigolds that are all the same species, you will probably get crosses and your seed that you saved will make babies that look different than the parent. Also if you grew a hybrid cultivar with no other marigolds around to play hanky panky with, you will still have babies different from the seed you saved. You might not care though, and sometimes the babies don't vary too much from the parent. Second, when saving seed it is best to save seed along the way from blooms from different times. If no pollinators are about and/or the weather is too hot or too cold, you will not get viable seed from the blooms. So it is possible to save seed from the end of the season and have few actually good seed in the dried flower heads. Third, it is good to put seeds you saved in an envelope. The air tight container is ok, but only after you are sure the seeds are sufficiently dry. Seeds can be ripe on a plant, but there is still tiny amounts of moisture that need to dissipate before they can be put in an airtight environment. I personally don't put in plastic because of this. Fourth, the same types of seed can be planted at the same time and sprouting times can vary. It can be a week or two difference sometimes. I'm not sure why, but it happens all the time. Fifth, seed companies do a good(well most of the time) job separating a higher percentage of viable seed from the unviable. They don't treat the seed to germinate better. To get technical, there's a few seeds they do prep for better germination, but in most cases like the marigolds they've done nothing to the seed. You may still get sprouts, or you may not. If you don't, hopefully you figure out what happened and you correct that mistake this year. Remy

Hi Hollywog, If you look in the FAQs you'll find some information. Here is a link that might be useful: seed save FAQs

Hi again, Being I would have to see the flower, it is hard to say. But since they came out easy, maybe. It isn't that they are drying in the dead flower, they are ripening. When the flower is finished, the seeds are starting to develop. How long depends on the type of flower. For some it is very quick, 4 O'Clocks come to mind. Other seem to take forever to ripen. When flowers like marigolds are finished, the seeds as you know ripen in the base of where the flower was. You have to wait for the base to dry up before taking the seeds out to ensure they have properly ripened. So the whole process is sort of like a pregnancy. The flower blooming part is when the sex happens. Then the seed ripening time is like a baby developing. If you remove the seeds too soon, they haven't developed properly. It is like a premature birth. The drying once you remove the seeds, is because there is a residual amount of moisture in them. If you store them before it is gone, you risk the chance of moisture collecting and causing mold which kills the seed. Hope that makes sense, Remy

Would love some....heard they are great for chickens & they look great too... please let me know if you want a sase for them & if so, where can I send it to? Not sure how to email you, still getting used to this new site.