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Seed-Saving 101: How to Save Seeds from Annual Flowers

By on August 4, 2020 22 Comments

Last Updated on August 11, 2023

Our garden is dotted with dozens of colorful annual flowers: calendula, cosmos, zinnia… you name it! Bees and butterflies fill the air, flitting from one prized food source to another. Unlike some meticulously-groomed flower gardens, ours is on the wild side, with both bright and faded brown blooms everywhere you look. Yet it is a bit unkempt on purpose, and for good reason: so we can seed-save! (Not to mention the wildlife likes it wild too.)


Read along to learn more about how to save seeds from annual flowers! This article will cover exactly when and how to collect flower seeds to save, seed storage best practices, and the easiest types of annual flowers to seed-save from.


Why Save Seed from Annual Flowers?


Seed-saving flowers is fun, easy, and rewarding. It is an excellent way to select and reproduce the prettiest, most successful flowers in your garden. Rather than allowing seeds to fall and scatter haphazardly (which we do plenty of too!), collecting and saving annual flower seeds makes it easy to re-plant them in more deliberate locations next season. 

Most annual flowers are prolific seed-bearers. Given their short life span (just one year!), their natural instinct is to create and disperse as much seed possible to continue their legacy into the following year. Therefore, you can usually collect a substantial amount of seed from annual flowers. And what gardener doesn’t love free seeds? Even if you don’t intend to plant them all yourself, saved seeds make a sweet and thoughtful gift for fellow gardeners. Better yet, exchange them in a seed swap!



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A large, multi headed purple zinnia plant is shown amongst a garden with peppers, tomatoes, pole beans and kale growing in the background. Some of the zinnia blooms are brown and drying while others are bright and full and some are in between. There is a Monarch butterfly perched atop one of the zinnia flowers.
As a monarch enjoys a fresh zinnia, the spent blooms are drying out for seeds. Fun story: a friend gave us the seeds for these large pink zinnia during a seed swap many years ago, and we’ve kept seeds from them each year to follow! Therefore, the exact variety is unknown – though they do resemble Benary’s giant zinnias.

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The Best Time to Save Seeds from Annual Flowers


The key to successfully saving seeds from annual flowers is to let the blooms completely mature and dry while they are still on the plant. As old flower heads wither and die, they’re paving the way for new life by developing seeds inside. The same goes for many vegetable, legume, and grain plant seeds. The longer they’re allowed to develop and dry on the mother plant, the better.

This means that cut flowers (those used in bouquets) aren’t ideal for seed-saving. That’s not to say you shouldn’t enjoy some cut flowers in your home too! Just keep in mind that when a flower is harvested young or in peak bloom, it likely hasn’t been pollinated yet – and thus lacks viable seeds. Seeds will not continue to develop if fresh flowers are removed and dried off the plant. Even half-dead looking flowers need more time on the plant! 


A cluster of orange marigold flowers are shown, shooting up from the plant below which is just out of sight. Most of the flowers are bright in color and lush in shape. One of the flowers however is on its way to seed preservation. Most of the petals have dried and turned brown while the stem of the flower is turning brown as well.
A fading marigold flower, ready to harvest for seed. In addition to the petals drying out, notice how brown the once-green base has also become. Inside that brown base are dozens of long skinny black marigold seeds.
DeannaCat has a pinch full of marigold seeds. They are dark seeds with white tips, some of them are still connected to a dried flower petal. In the background lies two airtight containers full of indiscernible seeds.
A nice big pinch full of marigold seeds.


How to Collect and Save Annual Flower Seeds


  • Choose the most luscious, robust, and healthy-looking flowers to save seed from. Good genes are passed on!

  • Allow the chosen flower head to fade and dry out on the plant. Ideally, even the green base of the flower (pedicel) and individual stem should become brown and dry as well. However, don’t let it sit there forever! Collect seeds before the head crumbles and they drop seed (though some annual flowers hold together nicely for a long time, like zinnia). Large nasturtium seeds are easy to collect once they fall to the ground.

  • Use clean pruning snips to remove the spent flower head. Rather than cutting off the head alone, follow its single stem down until you reach a junction of side branches or leaves, and trim there. This method of dead-heading helps promote more blooms and also looks more clean than topping the heads only.  If you aren’t ready to work with the cut dry flower heads quite yet (or if they aren’t 100% dry) store them in a brown paper bag for a week or two.

  • Extra-crumbly, large, or visible seeds like calendula can be collected directly into your hand from the plant before removing the flower. Otherwise, gather the cut dry flower heads on a clean work surface such as a table or tray – where you can pull them apart to easily save seeds, as opposed to losing them!

  • As you gently break apart the dry flower heads, sift through and look for developed seeds. Set those aside to save. Every variety of flower will have different size and shape of seeds inside, along with some hulls/chaff and other dry flower matter. Mature seeds will be more thick and firm (and usually darker in color) than the surrounding fluff. They will also be located in the centermost portion of the flower head, possibly attached at the base.

  • Since flower petals are designed to help spread seed in the wind once dry, the amount of petals on a flower often correlates to how many seeds are present in the dry head! For example, a simple cosmos flower may only provide a handful of seeds, while a big fluffy double zinnia can provide dozens or more. This isn’t always the case of course. Consider sunflowers and their huge seed-to-petal ratio!


The top portion of an orange calendula plant is shown. There are a few full and bright orange flowers while a flowerhead which has turned brown and dry awaits to spill its seed. Save flower seeds of your favorite plants to keep their favorable traits in your garden for years to come.
Calendula seeds are large and C-shaped, concentrated around the outside of the dry flower head. Simply crumble them off into your hand.
DeannaCat is holding a pink cosmos flower, while seeds from another cosmos flower sit in her palm. The seeds are dark brown to black and are in the shape of a banana.
Cosmos seeds saved from several dried blooms. I already sorted and removed a lot of the fluffy chaff that came with them. Simple cosmos varieties with only a handful of petals will produce just a few seeds per head.
A four part image collage, the first image shows a zinnia flower that is still blooming and colorful though it is starting to slightly wither and dry. The second image shows the same flower once it has turned brown and dry. The peals are withered and the center of the flower is brown as well. The third image shows DeannaCat holding a small pinch of seeds that were harvested from the drying flower. The fourth image shows DeannaCat holding a handful of zinnia seeds harvested form a fluffier flower head, it contains at least three or four times the amount of seeds as the flower shown in the previous three images of the collage. If one choose to save flower seeds, using these images as a visual guide will be useful.
Zinnia seeds look like tiny arrowheads. If you pull on the dry petals, the seeds will usually still be attached at the base. Sparse zinnia with a large middle “beehive” center will produce less seed than the more full fluffy heads shown below.
DeannaCat is holding a handful of dried zinnia blooms. The petals have browned and withered, putting their energy into the flower seeds that lie within. In the background is a zinnia plant with large fluffy purple flowers from which the brown flowers came from. When you choose to save flower seeds from plants with large flower heads, there are usually many seeds that are contained within. There is also a fig tree along the fence line immediately behind the zinnia plant.
These extra poufy zinnia will provide dozens of seeds per head (ideal for seed-saving!) compared to the lesser amount found in the zinnia flower shown in the photo above.
A handful of dried poppy flowers. Their flower head turns into a roundish orb with a semi star shaped round top. Holes are revealed in the orb once the top of the flower head dries and raises off the main portion. Tip the heads upside down to safe flower seeds that are held within the dried head.
You know when poppy seeds are ready to harvest when the pods dry out, and then their little “top hat” lifts up to expose a ring of open holes around the top of the pod. Green poppy pods are totally enclosed, and will slowly start to expose those holes as they dry. Once fully dry, simply tip the poppy pod into a bowl or jar and lightly twirl it around as seeds coming sprinkling out from the holes. Poppies are one of the easiest (and most fun) annual flowers to harvest seed from!


Tips for Storing Saved Flower Seeds


  • As best you can, sort out the chaff from the seed. When we are seed-saving flowers for personal use, I don’t mind if some extra fluff comes along with seeds. Yet if we’re planning to seed swap or give them away as a gift, it is nice to store the seeds as “clean” as possible.

  • If the flower head was still a tad on the green side, or if the seeds are damp-feeling at all, don’t package them up right away. Instead, spread the collected seeds out in an open, shallow, airy container in a dark location for a few days (up to a couple weeks) to thoroughly dry.

  • Once dry, transfer the seeds into small packages for long-term storage. We like to use these small paper coin envelopes. They come in two sizes, and are perfect to write labels on. Ziplock baggies work too, but make sure your seeds are totally dry first since plastic will trap in moisture. If you have a large amount of seed, use a glass mason jar or other Tupperware-like container.

  • Store your saved flower seeds in a dry, temperate, and protected location. It is best to store them away from direct light. Using opaque paper packs also helps block light. Check out this article for more seed storage tips, and to learn more about how we organize all of our garden seeds in these awesome storage containers. 

  • The seeds saved from annual flowers are best used the following year. However, it is possible to successfully plant and grow flowers from them for many years to come! However, the germination (sprouting) rate will slowly decline over time, so simply plant a few extra seeds to compensate as the years go on.

  • You can either plant saved annual flowers seeds directly outdoors, or start seeds indoors and transplant them outside as seedlings. We typically get a jump start on the season and do the latter. If you need any tips on growing from seed, visit our Seed Starting 101 article, a step-by-step guide.


Two quart sized containers sit full of seeds, one is calendula seed while the other is zinnia. There are various dried heads of flowers scattered around the containers such as sunflower and zinnia. There are three small manilla coin envelopes in the middle, one has "misc. calendula" written on it and another has "sunflowers" written on it. When you save flower seeds, putting them in smaller packages can make great gifts for friends.
A collection of calendula, zinnia and a few sunflower seeds.
An image of the top of a round wooden table with two plastic boxes containing two slotted rows each of smaller plastic cases that contain packages of seeds. Each smaller case is labeled on the outside edge with what vegetable is inside it. They range from hot peppers, long radishes, squash, flowers, beans, tomatoes, mustards, etc. below the two boxes on the table there are two of the smaller cases opened on the table, displaying the various seed packs held within.
In our seed storage containers, there are at least 5 individual boxes dedicated to flower seeds alone!


The Best Annual Flowers for Seed-Saving


  • Marigolds
  • Sunflowers
  • Calendula
  • Nasturtium
  • Cosmos
  • Zinnia
  • Poppies
  • Bachelor’s Buttons (aka cornflower)
  • Larkspur
  • Snapdragon
  • Rudbeckia
  • Coneflowers (aka echinacea). These are actually perennials – but full of seeds!


The above-listed annual flowers are some of our favorites! Not only are they easy flowers to save seed from, but they’re also among the easiest companion flowers to grow in general – and highly attractive to pollinators! For an even larger list of our favorite pollinator-friendly flowers (including perennials not listed here), please feel free to visit: “The Top 23 Plants for Pollinators: Attract Bees, Butterflies, and Hummingbirds”.

Speaking of pollinators, they are another great reason to leave some spent blooms in the garden – instead of scrupulously deadheading every one. Seed-filled dry annual flowers are a wonderful food source for wild song birds! In our garden, we find birds are especially grateful for left-behind sunflowers and coneflowers.


Four purple echinacea coneflowers sit erect from their plant below. They have a bulbous inner portion of flower that is surrounded by long, thin petals that point towards the ground below. The background is a garden of flowering plants of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Perennials and annuals dot the landscape with shrubs, trees, vines, and cacti. Save flower seeds from perennials as well, such as these coneflowers.
Coneflowers glowing in our front yard garden.
DeannaCat is holding a large dried sunflower head. A few of the seeds are missing but they are large and plump, some of them are almost popping out of the head. In the background lay various other sized sunflower heads in various stages of drying. Save flower seeds such as sunflowers to grow for years to come and save some for the wild birds or chickens.
A few seeds for us, and plenty for the chickens.


See? It is crazy easy to save seeds from flowers.


In all, I hope you enjoyed this article and learned a little something new! Perhaps you’ll look at “ugly” brown flowers a little differently now too. Clearly we can’t save seed from all the flowers in the world – nor would we want to! Truth be told, we would harvest far more fresh cut flower bouquets to admire if our cat Dalai didn’t destroy every one we bring inside! So, enjoy those pretty flowers however you see fit.

Looking for new seed varieties to try? Browse the flower sections of our top 12 places to buy organic, heirloom, and non-GMO garden seeds. Please feel free to ask questions, and spread the flower power by sharing or pinning this article. Thanks for tuning in!


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Deanna Talerico (aka DeannaCat) is a garden educator and writer with over 15 years experience in organic gardening. She is a retired Senior Environmental Health Specialist, and holds a M.A. in Environmental Studies and B.S. in Sustainability and Natural Resources.

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22 Comments

    • Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)

      August 13, 2024 at 7:00 am Reply

      Hi Norma, we keep the seed cases in a closet, seeds store best in a dark and moderately cool (or at least not hot) location.

  • Susan S Gustafson

    August 11, 2024 at 6:20 am Reply

    I have a question about Canna Lilies, please. Do they produce seeds? After the blooms fall off the stem, several pods form at the top. Are these seed pods?

    Thank you,

    Susan Gustafson

    • Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)

      August 11, 2024 at 7:04 am Reply

      Hi Susan, yes, canna lilies produce seeds. You are correct in your guess on the seed pods as well, you just need to allow the pods to turn brown and fully dry. Hope that helps and have fun growing!

  • Denise Burdine

    October 24, 2023 at 9:16 am Reply

    I have just acquired a huge greenhouse and am anxious to begin a new hobby. I just need lots of information and resources!! I hope you can get me started.

  • Leann

    October 4, 2023 at 10:36 pm Reply

    Wonderful post! I have a question: what if the first frost comes and even a potential hard freeze comes and I haven’t harvested the dead heads and saved seed? Can I still save seed? Also, do you know about saving pumpkins seeds? Do the pumpkins need to fully ripen on the vine? Or can you use them as you would for fall decoration and then harvest the seed once fall is over? Thank you for the help!!!

    • Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)

      October 5, 2023 at 4:32 pm Reply

      Hi Leann, for most veggies or flowers you want to save seed from, it is best to do so once the fruit, veggie, or flower are fully mature. Your flower seeds should be able to withstand a frost as long as they are mature seeds to begin with, as far as your unripe pumpkins go, I am not sure if the seeds would be mature enough to try and sprout the following year to grow if the fruit isn’t close to being ripe. We have a few tips on how to harvest winter squash and a few ways to help immature squash ripen more once picked off the vine in this article. Hope that helps and good luck!

  • Marcy

    September 1, 2021 at 9:13 am Reply

    Hi there! Thanks for the helpful information. I collected seeds this year, and wonder if they can be planted the same season. In years past I keep them a year and then plant them (petunias, marigolds, dianthus, Black-eyed Susans…)

    • Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)

      September 2, 2021 at 8:01 am Reply

      Hi Marcy, you can plant the seeds anytime after you harvest them assuming that they were collected at the appropriate time. Some seeds need cold stratification for the seed to break dormancy before they can be planted so you may want to look into your specific varieties to know for sure if they qualify for this or not. Hope that helps and good luck!

  • Nusbaum Joan

    October 9, 2020 at 7:25 am Reply

    To whom it may concern, we are a group of gardeners in Colorado wanting to save seeds from an annual garden bed. The weather is getting colder but the plants are not all turning brown. Can we pot some of the zinnias up keep them watered until they go brown? Or is it possible to pull them out of the ground with roots in tact and hang them upside down. Thank you for your quick answer! Joan

    • Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)

      October 9, 2020 at 7:34 am Reply

      Hi Joan, it would be best to allow the plants to turn brown with age to let the seeds mature and ripen as much as possible with their roots still in the ground. If you are up against time, pulling them and letting them dry upside down seems to be an option, though some of the flowers may not have mature enough seeds to save. Let us know what you decide and how it worked out for you, good luck!

    • Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)

      August 11, 2020 at 5:18 pm Reply

      Hey Kim, sorry to hear your seeds didn’t germinate. There could be a number of factors on why they didn’t sprout, the main one being that they were harvested too fresh. The flowers should be allowed to dry on the stem of the plant and picked once completely dry and fully “ripe”. Also, if the seeds were subjected to harsh environmental conditions such as too hot, cold, moist etc. it could also decrease their viability.

      • Sharon

        October 11, 2021 at 4:52 pm Reply

        I have a few different types of zinnias this year but one is a mystery one that I love.and want to save. Because they are close to the other zinnias is there a way to isolate so I don’t have a cross pollinate?

        • Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)

          October 12, 2021 at 8:23 am Reply

          Hi Sharon, that’s a great question as zinnias do cross pollinate and to ensure a pure seed, you should only grow one variety at a time or space them 1/4 mile which isn’t feasible for most people. I would still save seed from the mystery plant and see how the seeds and plants differ from the mother plant. Hope that helps and good luck!

      • Sharon

        July 17, 2022 at 7:19 pm Reply

        I had the same problem with my merigolds none sprouted and I saved a time I thought they were all dry. Is there an extra trick with merigolds?

        • Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)

          July 18, 2022 at 8:35 am Reply

          Hi Sharon, marigolds should sprout fairly easily so maybe the seeds weren’t mature enough? If your other flower seeds sprouted then the seeds must be the issue as marigolds usually sprout just as easy or even more so than most others. Hope that helps and good luck!

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