I have a new house and an almost blank slate to fill so this sounds like a great resource. Hope no one minds lots of rudbeckia, black eyed susans, strawflower, columbine, coneflower, and milkweed....

Count me in again too, please, Tracy (Even though I'm still planting out winter sown babies, I'm planning on the next batch for this winter, lol).

I've had so much fun growing seeds I received last year. I've started saving seeds so I can participate again this year.
Mao

Count me in Tracy! Can't wait! Your such a great person for doing this for everyone.

GGG-I would love some of your Fig Leaf HH if you have any left. They sound gorgeous!

I'll have some double Chamois HH if anyone's interested. They are a light apricot color. I know some dislike doubles but I think these are really beautiful.

Shawna

{{gwi:341487}}

Hi Tracy,

I'd love to be in on the autumn seed swap. I've sent you an email. I'll have some fabulous poppies from Annies Annuals, coreopsis, sunflowers and some veggies. Cathy

GGG - That is gorgeous!

Oh Yipee! I am so in! I don't have a ton of variety ... but I went out last week and collected seeds from about 10 Pam's Choice foxglove and have a boatload of itty-bitty seeds .. WAY too many for me to use!!! I hope that someone will want some ... Question though ... do we make little home-made paper seed packets or where do you get the ziplock kind that are small enough?

-Bonnie

Stacy,

Thanks for hosting the seed exchange again!

Due to strange weather this year, I will only have a few varieties to share, but I wiil join in the swap :)

Almendra

Oh Goodie! I'm glad you are willing to do it again!

I collected some seeds from these guys last night....hoping you would do it!

Leasa

Bonnie:
You can package the seed however you might like. You can get the baggies 100 at wal-mart. Look near the embroidery hoops etc, they have them there.
I buy my baggies in boxes of a few thousand at a time - good if you need large amounts. I buy them from eBay.

girlgroupgirl

I can't wait ! I just missed it last year, and I've been patiently waiting.

Carol

I am new to this web. I will start saving what seeds I have. I have a new house and we don't have a lot. I do have some new things that I planted this spring. And to think, I have been deadheading for weeks. Lucky that I have lots of bloom time left in sunny CA. This sounds like fun. Donna

Leasa, I have them also. Do you know what the name is? I don't recall planting them.

Edna

Edna, the blue flower looks like Centaurea montana, perennial bachelor button, I've got them too.

Annette

OOh I'd love some seeds for the perennial bachelor buttons! This is so exciting!
Wish that I lived near you Tracy, so I could help.

Alright...y'all have gotten me all excited, too. I don't have much that is unusual but I do have a ton of breadseed poppies (divided by color, I hope LOL, and including the peony type in both red and pink) and larkspur and rose campion (the Angel Blush ones) and there are going to be plenty of Prairie Sunshines, too, I think.

Can I join, please???

i am hoping to get in on this also! sounds like fun. i've already collected a few different seeds.
Tanya

I'd love to participate! I seldom visit this forum, although this is my gardening style. I usually hang out in the wintersowing forum, but I'm very glad I wandered over here!

I'll have a lot of different seeds to send in, including some single hollyhocks that are perennial for me and other family members. I hope anyone growing short perennials will be sure to send things in, since that's something I really need--the stuff that was short last year has grown up!

Het Stage_rat! Good to see you in the Cottage Forum! You brought up a really good point --

I was going to suggest on things like milkweed, larkspur, coreopsis, etc. -- you know, just regular plants that you have seed of -- that if you don't know the full Latin name of genus and species, that you put down the color & height. If it's growing in your garden or you snatched the seed, it should be very easy to do and could help those of us who are looking for "pink" or as stage_rat says, "short".

Memo, You asked for ideas -- knowing if something is annual or perennial would be helpful to me, but then we get into Texas and Florida where everything is perennial, so I guess another category would be "tender perennial". Personally, for my own use, I use the T&M seed site. They have theirs divided in a way that I can understand. LOL. P, HA, HHA, TP, G and that's how I store my seeds because that's the order I want to sow/wintersow them.

Lime

Count me in (sigh. . . I really don't NEED any more, but . . .)

QUESTION:
Do I have to clean all the seed? Last year I had lots more seed I could have sent, but I found it very time consuming to clean all the seeds, remove the chaff, etc. For example, can I just throw in a flower head of rudbeckia "Herbstone" where seed has dried in the flower head (probably 30 or more seeds in a single head), or do I need to pull all the seeds out and clean out the chaff. With 2 little ones I am always time constrained.

Personally, I don't mind cleaning my own seed that I receive from someone else, but some people might not like receiving it that way. I could send LOTS more if I could just throw in some dried flower heads. Sometimes I imagine cleaning all this seed, then it goes to someone who really doesn't need it, and they may just throw away all that work.

I am not a meticulous gardener . . . .

Let me know your thoughts.

Lol Brenda! You always need more : )
I think it is ok with difficult to separate seed. I'm pretty sure the whole problem, on the seed exchange a long time ago, arose out of people sending all chaff and no seed. As long as you know seeds are actually in there, why not?
Of course I'm of the believe you shouldn't complain about practically free stuff anyway; beggars can't be choosers!
Remy

Glad I happened on this forum today. I've got a long stretch of prepared ground next to some stairs where I'd like to establish a cottage-y look with stuff that reseeds readily. I'll be collecting for this trade!

I would loooooove to do this! I won't have as much to contribute as you guys, but it will be so much more fun to plant flowers that came from all of you (that I learn so much from) rather than flowers I just picked up at a garden center! So do I just check back for instructions later on?

Tracy, I don't know you, but you must be one heck of a nice person to coordinate this for everyone! So I just want to say.....THANK YOU!!!

Thank you all for the words of thanks. Really, I love doing this and it's no trouble at all. I enjoy it.

My opinion on including chaff with the seeds: I like knowing my seeds are clean and that I can just put them away to wait for winter sowing. It kind of makes things easier that way.

I say, clean as many as you can. And if it comes down to the wire and you can't clean the rest, note that on the packets so the receiver knows.

Tracy

I'm someone who doesn't mind chaff, but the one time someone sent me a whole flower head, there were only 5 seeds in it. It was a zinnia, and of course could have had 50 seeds, but nope, it only had 5. (The trader also must have picked it in the rain, and then put it in a plastic bag. It was...great)

So, I could be one of the recipients of the seeds that people didn't have time to clean. But...if people could just break the flower head apart really fast, to see that there really are seed-looking things in there, that would be the best. 'Cause I don't want to end up with a bunch of seedless flower heads!

(and...Hi, Lime! I came over here because your post reminded me of this forum)

Count me in also, I will have tons of seeds, including lots of natives. I have a restored prairie that is full of native wildflowers & grasses to Illinois. In addition to lots of other interesting plants.

Hi! Been lurking around this forum since I plan on planting a cottage garden next spring. I would like to get in on this seed swap if I can. I won't have a lot but I'll send what I've got. It sounds great.

I'm not trying to be 'cheap', I have LOTS of flowers and can send LOTS of seeds, but that takes LOTS of time. I will try to clean as much as I can, and will make sure there are lots of seeds in the flower head as well.

BTW, I save a few seeds for myself, usually don't clean them, just make sure they are dry when I put them away. (Fall is almost as busy as spring around here. With a harsh winter coming I have to do a lot of winter prep - draining hoses, pots inside, winter mulch, etc.)

Really dry, clean seeds do fine in a plastic bag, usually.

To expound on State Rat's post, I suggest:
If you've not time to clean seeds, then they'll fare best to pick dry, browning seed heads on a sunny day past noon. Lay them on a tray until you're positive they're dry. Store them in a brown paper lunch bag where there's plenty of room for air circulation. Mail them off in manila envelopes or homemade paper packets.

I can appreciate Brenda's position about plenty of seeds and little time. I picked some amaranthus seed heads the other day (Not Hopi Red Dye, some that look like Dreadlocks). If they're not perfectly brown and dry, the seeds aren't coming out. When they are totally dry, you'll have a cup of chaff to a scant spoonful of seeds. When I finally reduced all that down to fine chaff and seeds, the chaff followed the seeds through the screen. I tried winnowing -- half the seeds flew away in the wind with the chaff. At long last I had less than a half teaspoon of beautiful, shiny black seeds about the size of poppy seeds. All for an hour's work. I'll be hoarding those.

Once you determine that a dry zinnia head is full of well developed seeds, you can snip off the dry petals with shears, leaving easily pulled out, mostly clean seeds. Start at the bottom and stop when you reach the whitish undeveloped seeds.

Nell

Please put me on the list! Now enjoying the "fruits" of last year's swap!
Suzanne

Bump!

Count me in again tnis year. Last year's was great.

dem_pa

I am now gathering seeds from the gorgeous PINK and I mean BRIGHT coral pink cypress vine. It is just gorgeous.

So get in on this trade, there are goodies ya know!!

GGG

ooooo - bright pink cypress vine? Sounds fun!

I would like to join the seed swap. Thanks, Carol

Sounds like fun, I'd love to participate.

thanks!
Andrea

Count me in Tracy..and thank you for undertaking such a big job for us. I appreciate it.

GGG,now I just gotta have some pink cypress vine seed.I have a beautiful pink Hibiscus with burgundy foilage that is a perennial I could trade you for..I will included as many seeds as i can.I am doing a pink bed next yr.My red one is slap dab gorgeous,thanks to gottagarden..
moonphase

Oh man, I have bowls and bags all over the kitchen with seed heads drying in them. DH gave me that look when I started filling his coffee cups with seeds this morning lol! I just took that as an opportunity to once again remind him how badly I need my own potting shed. "Well honey, couldn't you PLEASE build me my very own potting shed to put all my stuff in? Then it wouldn't be all over the kitchen and I could also put my seeds in paper cups instead of your coffee cups because they wouldn't get knocked over INSIDE MY OWN POTTING SHED! Hehehee!

Answer: Yeah I've been wanting to build you one for a while.

A girls gotta do what a girls gotta do!

MeMo

I'm glad you said that MeMo --
We are out of cups and every other little container, too.

All - I have been thinking about what kind of contraption I could make that would help me dry the seeds before I pack them.

What I would like is to have something totally open on the top where I could continually drop seedpods to finish ripening and drying. Then I could clean a certain kind all at once.

I need some mesh yogurt cups. Or little cardboard boxes with coffee filters inside of them (I hate losing all those seeds in the seams of bags and boxes.) I have a bunch of bitty sacks...what kind of box could I put them in to hold them stable I case I overload with snapdragon stems or something?

I don't mind cleaning them if I can sit down and do one kind all at once, then bag them. But I like things neat and tidy and things are increasingly perched here and there where I can't find what I need.

Just thinking out loud, but if anybody has a seed drying shelf or anything, I'd love to hear about it!

Lime

Im new but Id like to participate. I have purple queen cleome,shasta daisy,nicotiana and a few others saved so far.

I would like to join too. So far I have collected seed from songbird columbine, 3 different nicotiania, 2 shades of Osteospurmum, the simple red poppies, red dianthus, and should have a few more things by the end of summer.

JEnny P

I'd like to participate again this year. I've been busy gathering seeds and should have many more by the time Fall comes!!
Joann

Moonphase said "I have a beautiful pink Hibiscus with burgundy foilage that is a perennial"

You are ON! I wanted a hibiscus with burgundy foliage and pink flowers. I've only seen burgundy with red. Awesome!

girlgroupgirl

I sure hope someone wants lupine seeds, J annd I just spent three hours gathering and cleaning seeds... we think we have nearly 2000, M

Oh Mora, I DEFINITELY would love some lupine!!!! I'm not sure if I got the cherry red lupine seeds from you two years ago but they flowered beautifully. I fell in love with them but had to leave them behind when we moved. So I'm looking to start anew.

Tracy

I would love to participate. I have been busy gathering seeds. When and where are we sending the seeds? And how many can I send? This is so exciting. Thanks.

I would love some of you Lupines too, Mora! I remember a picture you posted a couple years ago, of your lupines and gardens, that took my breath away! I've wanted some ever since and finally bought three plants this year. The blooms were so tiny but pretty. I hope they come back next year.

My DD2 and I worked on seeds last night. I swear she's gonna be a gardener yet. As we worked she said "this isn't so bad". A little later she said "this is kind of addicting". Some more time went by and she said "would you mind if I make the little envelopes and put the seeds in them"? LOL now she wants to go out and help me gather MORE seed. Heeeheee! I've got her hooked!

MeMo

Yes yes yes!! I just gathered white, pink and purple cleome, purple coneflower, salmon peony flowered poppies, blue delphs and lavendar petunias (egad the seeds are almost invisible) I will have some Black Eyed Susans, some creamy yellow trumpet vine , red cardinal vine, purple hyacinth vine,and some others. If everything works out, that is.
It will be my first ever seed swap and I would love some hollyhocks, annual batchelor buttons, rose campions,lupines, shasta daisies, cosmos, or heck just about anything!!! I read the FAQs here and the seed saving forum so I think I know what I need to do.
Thanks so much for doing this swap. I am so excited, I can't stand it. Wanna go home and look for more seeds. don't wanna be in the office. :( Sue