[Tuesday – Flowers and Flowering Plants] How To Collect Allium Seeds

Remember how I told you that someone stole some of the pretty Alliums that my landlady planted near the road? Here’s what they looked like back in the spring:

The thief may have believed that no one would notice the missing plants because there were still so many left in the bed. If so, he figured incorrectly.

One of the stolen Alliums was this one:

Which I’d been photographing closely for months. So of course I noticed the theft right away.

A few weeks after I told my landlady about the theft, and the remaining flowers had faded, she decided to remove the temptation. She dug up the bulbs and moved them to the back yard (until she found a new, safe home for them):

That’s one way to stop a thief!

Alliums, or Onions, look gorgeous in a garden – I understand why someone would want to steal them. They’re tall, colorful and so funky looking. Even though they are sold as bulbs, they will go to seed once the flowering is done. You can grow new plants from the seeds, but it’ll take a few years before they flower.

I noticed the ones in the back yard going to seed:

Here’s a closer look:

See all the little black seeds in there? Here’s an even closer look:

The flower heads each were at varying stages of seed development – some were ready to be harvested, others were still being formed.

I didn’t want to miss my chance to collect them, or lose any to the wind, so I decided to act.

I cut each of the globes off the stem, and dropped them all into a paper bag:

They’ll remain in the paper bag until the seeds have formed and fallen off into the bottom of the bag. Then at some point I’ll package them for gifts or store them in an envelope until I can plant some myself in the fall.

Perhaps you have a different method for collecting Allium seeds. This was the simplest way I knew.

I’ll be back manana with an all-new Plant Lady Chronicles, hope to see you back here.