So this year was my first time EVER gathering seed & drying them. (I am new to this whole gardening thing & planted only a handful of plants)

I want to make sure I did it right. On a dry day about 2-3 weeks ago I went out & gathered the following:

celosia giant plume: The flowers were brown & I just shook them into a paper bag & TONS of seed went into the bag!

white zinnia/marigold- I had both of these in white & once the heads turned brown I forgot which was which-OOOPS! I crushed the very brown flowers (stem was brown too!)into a paper bag. I can't tell by looking at the seed any difference! I think I got mostly zinias w/ very little marigold! My marigolds didn't do well!!

painted daisy/tricolor daisy- ANOTHER OOPS! once they were brown I forgot to look at the plant to see which was which! And again... seed looks the same. But I crushed the brown flower heads into a paper bag.

gayfeather-once flower heads were very brown I cut off the spike & put it into the bag & slid my fingers along the spike & the seed went into the bag. If I read up on this right, these don't put off alot of viable seed so I need to give out generously in trades, correct?

cannas-very easy to gather those large seeds. once pod started to open up I hand plucked them & into a paper bag they went.

morning glory-these were pretty easy too. The pod was slightly split open so I would just open it up & get the seeds & into a paper bag they went.

So, now for the last 2-3 weeks they have been in the lunch size, brown, paper bags. From time to time I would go and shake the bag to shuffle things around a bit.

Are they dry now? Can I baggie them up? Did I do it right? I'm afraid to offer them up to seed trades unless I know I did it right & seeds should be viable!!

Thanks for your help!

Jodie