Thursday, May 15, 2014

Collecting Seeds - Gazania

Gazania flowers

Gazania is native of South Africa. They require full sun, are drought tolerant, do not require fertilization and very hardy. They produce large bright colored flowers from October till April(in Delhi NCR region). They are perfect for home gardens due to their low maintenance and brilliant flowers. You can plant them in containers or the ground as flower beds or boundaries.

Gazania
Gazania comes in brilliant colors


If you have a Gazania plants this year and you want to have them next year, then just save some seeds and you can have many more plants at no cost(only a little effort).

Yellow Gazania


Seed collection is easy. Snip off the flower heads when the petals start to shrivel. Let the flower heads to dry up by putting them in a paper envelope and placing it in a warm and well ventilated area. I generally place similar variety of flower heads in one envelope and label it. Within a few days the fluffy seed heads will start to burst out of the flower head. Save the seeds in a labelled paper envelope an place it in a cool dry place.

Gazania seed
Flower head can be snipped off and placed in a paper envelope at this stage


If you let the flower head to completely dry up on the plant then the fluffy seeds will be blown away with the wind. Therefore it's important to snip them off and place them in a paper envelope before that.



Gazania Seeds
Gazania Seeds ready to fly























Store the saved seeds in an envelope or glass jar placed in a cool dark place.

3 comments:

  1. THANK YOU for pictures! I've been trying to figure out when to harvest the spent flowers to get the seeds. It's so wet here I don't think they'll dry on their own on the plant. Thanks again!

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  2. You're most welcome! I'm just happy to know that you found it useful.

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  3. I have some seedlings germinated from Panamerican F1 Hybrid seeds

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