How to collect and save seeds

Collect and store seeds

Collecting and saving seed from your garden plants is easy to do and will provide you with plenty to sow next season. Leave a few seedheads on your plants after they’ve finished flowering, removing the rest to conserve the plant’s energy. Alternatively the seedheads may be highly ornamental and can be left on the plants for their display, but check them regularly to collect some of the seed once it’s dry.

Collecting seeds from your own garden plants can save you a fortune. In this short video guide, Alan Titchmarsh explains how at the end of the summer many plants are producing seeds that can be collected and stored ready to be sown the following spring.

He demonstrates how to collect seed from garden plants such as aquilegia, honesty and phlomis and explains that you need paper bags and secateurs before running through the process of gathering, cutting and collecting seedheads. Discover more plants to save seeds from.

Follow our step-by-step guide to collecting and storing seeds, below.

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