Saving Bupleurum Seed

This post is part of my series on saving cut flower seeds.

Please see the Save Your Own Cut Flowers post about methods for selecting, harvesting, processing, and storing your seeds!

Bupleurum, AKA Hare’s Ear

Bupleurum griffithii, B. rotundifolium

If you only save one plant’s seeds this year, she’s a great candidate. After bupleurum flowers, it holds its seeds aloft on lovely strong stems – I actually like to cut them when the seeds are green and not shattering, for a more muted and chunky version of this foliage. Allow the seeds to dry and turn very brown/dark purple/black. Seeds are ready to harvest once you can squeeze a flower and have all the seeds fall off into your labeled bucket. This is a fun and easy way to harvest, and you can get a lot of the seed crop by harvesting the patch over a couple of weeks. There’s usually no need to dry the seed after this point, but a secondary drying is always wise.

After harvesting, pass your batch through your screens and winnow to remove light material. You should get a good amount of seed that will be much less expensive than buying it in and will germinate like a dream. Store in a freezer if you have space, or in a cool dark place that has a stable temperature.

For more on seed-saving and other gardening topics, check out my workshops!

LOTS of bupleurum in a bucket.

Saved boop seed germinates like a dream!

Ripe bupleurum seed has a rich purple-brown hue.