It's a fun gamble to collect and save seeds from flowering annual hybrids

Question: In early June, I planted two packs of zinnia seeds in my front yard. They got so tall and full that we had to tie them to our porch railing so we could get up on our porch. The flowers were as big as 5 inches in diameter. They were so beautiful that I would like to plant them again next year. I remember my dad growing zinnias when I was a child and then storing the seeds for the next year. I have cut off most of the blooms and put them in an open plastic container. I know there was something my dad used to store them in over the winter, but I can't remember what it was. Could you help me? Some of the dead blooms still have dried petals attached to the seeds. Should I remove the dried petals?

Answer: Many old-fashioned annuals grow quite well from seeds collected and stored at home. Zinnias, sunflowers, cosmos, marigolds, California poppies, impatiens, petunias, cleome, snapdragons, nigella and calendula are among the easiest seeds to harvest. There are, however, a few things to consider when saving your flower seeds.

First, if the zinnias you planted in June were hybrids (the seed packet will tell you if they are), they won't return as the exact same variety when the seeds you save are planted next year. Hybrid plants are created by purposefully cross-pollinating two different varieties to combine the positive traits of both into one distinct variety. If seeds from a hybrid are saved and replanted the next year, those offspring may revert back to one of the parents or be an entirely different selection. When you save and replant seeds collected from any hybrid variety, you never know what you're going to get.

That being said, you'll still get zinnias of some type from your seeds, even if the original plants were hybrids; next year's plants just might not be the exact same zinnias you grew this year.

The second factor to consider is that, even if the original zinnias were not hybrids, a certain amount of natural cross-pollination surely occurred in your garden as the birds and butterflies carried pollen from flower to flower. This means that almost all flower seeds you collect from a home garden will result in a mixture of colors the following year. In other words, if you save seeds from pink impatiens or petunias, the flowers won't necessarily be pink the next year. You're likely to get a random mixture of colors instead. Same goes for most other flowering annuals, though some cross-pollinate at higher rates than others.

All that being said, it's definitely worthwhile to save seeds from your zinnias and other annual flowers, if you're up for a little fun. Every year, I save seeds from my sunflowers, tithonia, amaranth, zinnias and cosmos. Not only do I enjoy seeing the resulting variety of colors I get, I also save a lot of money on new seeds and starter plants every year.

Flowering annuals I never save seeds from include hybrid bedding plants that were bred to be short-statured and won't return true to type, and any annuals that are easier started from cuttings than from seeds (like sweet potato vine, coleus, licorice plant, double impatiens, angel wing begonias, and fuchsias).

To save seeds from your zinnias, take the spent flowers you harvested and spread them out on a cookie sheet or a piece of newspaper. Allow them to dry in a warm, dry room for two or three weeks, flipping them over once or twice per week.

After they're dry, crack open the base of the flower and the seeds will fall out. They'll be paddle shaped and may, or may not, have the petal attached. If the petal is attached, you can snip it off to make it easier to store the seeds. After the seeds are separated, spread them back out on the cookie sheet or newspaper and let them dry for a few more weeks before packing them into labeled envelopes. I like to store the envelopes in a zipper-top plastic bag or screw-top glass jar in the fridge.

Horticulturist Jessica Walliser co-hosts “The Organic Gardeners” at 7 a.m. Sundays on KDKA Radio with Doug Oster. She is the author of several gardening books, including “Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control” and “Good Bug, Bad Bug.” Her website is jessicawalliser.com.

Send your gardening or landscaping questions to tribliving@tribweb.com or The Good Earth, 503 Martindale St., Third Floor, D.L. Clark Building, Pittsburgh, PA 15212.