Saving Seeds

My son loves to help. But, he's a little too helpful for his own good sometimes. One afternoon about a month ago, our doorbell rang. Immediately, he was at the front door opening it faster than I could open the doorbell camera to see who it was. I was asking myself in my head what kind of white lies am I going to have to tell to get rid of this door to door salesman. 

Fortunately for both of us, it was our neighbor from down the street. She was holding a big box which turned out to be bluebonnet seeds. She had asked if we wanted some and I elatedly accepted. We had seen this neighbor grow bluebonnets before and she had told me about one of the houses across from our side of the street which used to have bluebonnets blooming in the spring. She was inspired to buy bluebonnet seeds and plant them. Since the transferring of ownership multiple times, that house no longer has bluebonnets, but hers does! 

She scooped up a bunch of seed pods, gave them to me, and told me how to grow them from her experience. The first step needed was to dry them. I was thinking, "Great, we're going to be gone for two weeks. Let's let them sit outside under the patio to dry and when we get back, I will deal with them."

I set them outside to dry and our trip came and went. When we got back, I had seen some of the seed pods outside burst open by themselves to release seeds. For the rest of them, we manually opened them and removed the seeds. 

These are what bluebonnet seed pods look like. My children and I sat outside on the patio one morning and opened a lot of them. These were the pods we couldn't finish before we got tired of the chore. I'll finish them another day. My neighbor said to scatter them in the summer, let them grow and die away in the winter, and then they will come back naturally in the spring after the rains. 

This is actually the second time my children and I have removed seeds for a plant. The first time was when we plucked coriander seeds off my plant. I realize they naturally dry and fall off when they're ready. However, we were going on a trip and it was going to coincide with when most of them would naturally dry and fall. As a result, I manually removed the majority of them before our trip so I could save them instead of having them fall all over our patio or blow away and start growing in random locations around our yard. 

Coriander seed is on the left and bluebonnet seed is on the right.

I'm not sure how much of my outdoor hobbies my children will pick up on, but they've sure experienced a glimpse of what it's like to be a farmer/grower. If anyone local wants coriander or bluebonnet seeds, let me know and I'd be happy to share some with you! I can't guarantee the efficacy of growth, but nature hasn't disappointed me too badly with all my growing experiments. I don't recommend this coriander for eating because I've handled it with outside/dirt-ridden hands, but if you'd like to use it for cooking purposes, you're on your own 😅. 

Please note coriander is a cool weather plant so please don't plop it in the soil and expect it to grow well right now. I don't think I planted mine last season until September or October.