Hey Brunilda. The wire tie is to prevent it from exploding open? I've never had pods, see. I just assumed people wrap them in ziploc bags to catch the seeds. That's what I did with my Dorstenia which shoots out seeds to a distance of about 2 meters. The tie is a better idea. Pagan

Straw is usually the stalks left over after oats or wheat have been threshed off the plants. Al Pablo indicated, not all straw is free of seeds. A lot depends on how it was harvested and the efficiency of the machinery. Some if it is likely to have quite a bit of seed, but any seed that manage to survive and come up from that is easy to pull up or deal with. I really like alfalfa, it is a good natural, slow release nitrogen source and is also supposed to contain a natural growth harmone which might possibly benefit your plants. My sister in law who raises horses swept up, and filled several feed bags with broken up bits of high dollar alfalfa hay. I have added it in with other materials to prep a row for planting in my garden, and things seem to be growing great. I do not know if you can tell much about it from of it or not. Most alfalfa hay is cut and baled before it seeds out, I have never, ever had any problem with seed sprouting from using it. Just my.02 Bill P.

Any seed pod should be ready when its brown and looks like its ready to burst open. You can collect it by just cutting it off and putting it on a paper plate a cup or a paper sack which ever you prefer and then bring it inside and let it dry for a few days. As far as the wintersowing part I am not sure about but you could always try it I am very new to winter sowing but me personally I would give it a shot. You dont have to sow all of your seeds just keep some that you would like to winter sow and then a backup just in case. Heres a link in refrence to saving seeds. Here is a link that might be useful: Saving seeds

Tammy, I grew Angelonia from seed this year that I saved from the Serena series last year. Of course I don't have the original plants to compare this year's version to, but I don't recognize any signicant deterioration-in fact, they are lovely again this year. If they were F1's they seem to be fine when removed one generation. Ptilotus seeds are stiff bars enclosed by "fuzz". I got my original seeds from Australia so I am not sure if commercial growers clean them before they are sold, but the ones I harvested a few days ago look just like the ones I started with. I have been told that only the seeds from well matured seedheads will germinate, so I waited until the blooms turned completely gray to harvest. As you crumble the seed head, the bars seem to be enclosed in the petal base similar to the way a Gomphrena seed is held within a puffy petal base only this is not as fluffy. I was instructed to take a pin and pull away a bit of the fuzz to expose the seed and I did that. I only had about 50% germination in the greenhouse, but I may not have allowed enough time for all of them to germinate. I hope this is helpful. Alana