Matt's Plants & Co – Australia

I thought I was pushing my luck last year when I put sunflower seeds in the ground in mid-January.

But sure enough, come April 1, a flower had appeared.

Despite planting them outside of their optimal window – usually spring to early summer – I saw the fruits of my labour when I got home one evening and saw the yellow petals of the hardy plant.

Given how spectacular they were, I decided I would save the seeds.

How do you save sunflower seeds?

First, I let the flowers dry out naturally on the plants. Just when they were looking ragid, I placed a paper bag over them and ziptied it to the plant. This prevented birds from pecking at the flowers and stealing all the seeds.

After two weeks, I cut off the flower heads. Note though that by this point, you could clearly see the seeds in the flower. If you can’t, I would leave the paper bag on for longer.

Once I cut the flower heads, it was a matter of playing around with the heads and pushing/picking the seeds out. If they’ve dried out enough, the seeds should come out reasonably easy.

There must have been hundreds of seeds – these were Giant Russian sunflowers.

I then placed all those seeds in a paper bag and put it on the top of the fridge to dry out for a further two weeks.

All in all, it was a long process but with little actual work involved.

Unfortunately, after planting those harvested seeds this year, I didn’t get the same looking flowers. They were, in fact, much smaller.

Now I think it could’ve been the fact I put them in the ground in early February – again, outside of their ideal planting time – and they flowered three months later.

But also, it could come down to cross-pollination.

I don’t mind – isn’t that the fun of saving seeds? You never know exactly what you’re going to get. When it comes to sunflowers, they may have a slightly different colour or shape each year.

And when it comes to vegies, it may be a different taste or look.

Either way, saving sunflower seeds is easy enough to do and very rewarding. It saves money too, and you can exchange seeds with friends and family so you all get a mix of sunflower shapes and sizes popping up in the garden.