seeds of change

with summer winding down, many flowers are producing seeds. if you collect them, you can plant them and grow more of your favorite plants next year. sometimes, the seed heads are just as interesting to look at as the flowers themselves are. some are even beautiful in their own way. these are some of the flowers in our yard that are actively producing seeds.

peonies have some of the prettiest seed pods. we have always let the seeds drop since we were under the impression that propagating them was difficult. this year, we noticed several new plants sprouting so perhaps it is not as hard as we thought.

some of the heads had 2 pods, some 3 or 4 and a few like this one, had 5 pods.

crape myrtle seed heads are also pretty. we always leave them on the branches and so far, we have yet to find a seedling.

cosmos look a bit punky or other worldly. however you look at it, they are as interesting as the flowers.

morning glory seed heads look like little tomatoes

coneflowers; goldfinches love the seeds so we never remove the heads.

liatris on the left and black eyed susans on the right. the black eyed susans are another favorite of goldfinches and we leave them for a while but since they propagate so easily, we remove them eventually.

liriope will sprout from seeds and rhiozomes. if you leave the seeds you can count on many more plants. that may be a good thing or a bad thing if you do not want it to spread.

we had an interesting visitor in the crape myrtle. some sort of fuzzy caterpillar eating the seed buds.

skippers like the butterfly weed.

our pretty little flower box at the end of the driveway. "proven winner" plants really do well in planters and beds. we picked up the petunias and coleus late in the season when tants plants was having a clearance sale and we only paid a dollar per pot. they have filled in nicely.