Saving Jewels of Opar 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!

Jewels of Opar, aka Fameflower

Talinum paniculatum

With this beauty, you almost can’t help but save seed! For harvest, wait until the stems have produced their orangey-red spheres all the way to the top of the inflorescence – that way they are mature seeds and also won’t droop if you are using them fresh. If you have any stems leftover after all your dried projects, simply strip the plumes into a labeled bucket and rub them between your hands or against a fine screen until you no longer see full pods, but only the tiny black seeds.

After rubbing, 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.

Learn more about seed saving and other gardening topics in my workshops!

Glorious seedy jewels!