Harvesting Seed

Readers of this blog know that I have been tending a California natives garden bed. They also know that I've been harvesting the seeds of some of the wildflowers for next year and to share with friends & family. I've clipped and plucked seed pods of the blue (Arroyo?) lupine, the "standard" orange California poppies, and the "mixed" California poppies. That leaves the Yellow Lupines.

Well, the last few days have been stupendously hot, so I slacked and didn't get out there to clip the seed heads. Today is also awfully dang'd hot, but not nearly as bad, so I took my clippers and my paper bag and braved the afternoon heat.

I am horrified to report that an insane number of Yellow Lupine seeds have already ripened and exploded all over the place! I am going to have SO many Yellow Lupines next year that I'm not sure what to do about it.

Oh, well. It remains to be seen how many actual seeds I managed to harvest.

In the meanwhile, I'm finding that the "standard" orange poppy seed pods seem to continue to hold onto a percentage of their seeds after they explode. In some cases, the pods seem to still be chock-full.

Well, back to extracting seed from pods!