Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
efeuer

Agastache seeds

Liz
10 years ago

I would like to save some agastache seeds to try again next year, since the plant I had this year died. (I will be locating it in a drier location.) I got some seedheads from a friend. The stem and flowers were completely brown. When I took the seedheads home I tried tapping them over a bowl and nothing came out. I am a little confused. Are the dried flowers themselves the seeds? Or do they contain a seed inside? Have the seeds already dispersed? I read the description in the FAQ but it didn't clear things up for me. I would be very appreciative if someone could explain this.
Liz

Comments (7)

  • claydirt
    10 years ago

    No. It may still be a little to early in the season (it is here, in Indiana). My recollection is that they are fairly small. I think I've seen some seedheads being almost empty, other had seeds.

    Try shredding one up into small pieces, then rolling all the pieces between your hands over a paper plate. (Sometimes you can hear smaller seeds hit the paper plate.) I like to use a paper plate & blow lightly across it to separate out the lighter dried flower parts. Seeds are a little heavier. Don't sneeze or it will all be on the floor!

  • terrene
    10 years ago

    Do you mean Agastache foeniculum which has the purple spikey flowers and is native to eastern North America? I have a lot of this plant but have never bothered to collect seed before. Received a couple divisions at a swap years ago and It reseeds ever year. The bumblebees LOVE this plant!

    Your question got me curious so I collected a dried seed head out there today (one of the first) and crushed it up. It broke apart into petals and seeds. Here you can see them - the seeds are tiny oval things, about 1 mm in length.

  • Liz
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks for the picture. I think mine are duds. Either the seeds were already dispersed or they didn't have time to mature. Either way there was nothing there.

  • terrene
    10 years ago

    Some of the Agastache cultivars like 'Blue Fortune' and 'Black Adder' are sterile hybrids I think - they've never thrown a seedling for me! Maybe the seedhead you got was from one of those cultivars. The species A. foeniculum though, is very prolific.

  • plays_in_dirt_dirt
    10 years ago

    I grow white (noID) and blue (giant blue) and collect seeds every year. I have found that if I let the seed head get completely brown so that all the spent blossoms are open all the way to the top, many of the seeds have fallen. I get more seeds if I snip the seed heads when they are mostly brown with still some light green, open, and beginning to turn brown at the tip of the seed head. I can send you seeds for postage if you want some.

  • docmom_gw
    10 years ago

    I could share Agastache seeds as well. I have some of the blue type and also some red/pink/coral that I got in a trade this year. I don't know if the second type is annual or perennial.

    Martha

  • Yolanda
    9 years ago

    There are some years when I get no seed from mine, either. I suspect this is when it is too rainy for bees when the plants happen to be in flower....or, too rainy and wet when they are trying to set pollinated flowers.

Sponsored
Hoppy Design & Build
Average rating: 5 out of 5 stars9 Reviews
Northern VA Award-Winning Deck ,Patio, & Landscape Design Build Firm
More Discussions