Collecting your own biennial and perennial flower seeds is a smart way to save money in your garden and get even more value out of your flower beds. During the spring and summer, perennials can provide us with a showstopping display of flashy flowers for cutting and garden enjoyment. But at the end of the season, flower gardens will also yield handfuls of fertile seeds for future gardens or to gift to friends and family.
In this guide, you’ll find the best biennial and perennial flowers to grow for seed saving. We’ve also included some seed harvesting tips to help you gather the highest quality seeds even if you’ve never saved seeds before!
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- 20 biennial and perennial flowers to grow for autumn seed saving
- 1. Coneflower (Echinacea spp.)
- 2. Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)
- 3. Milkweed (Asclepias spp.)
- 4. Joe Pye weed (Eutrochium purpureum)
- 5. Silver dollar plant (Lunaria annua)
- 6. Aster (Aster spp.)
- 7. Hollyhock (Alcea rosea)
- 8. Bellflower (Campanula spp.)
- 9. Mallow (Malva spp.)
- 10. Columbine (Aquilegia spp.)
- 11. Forget me not (Myosotis spp.)
- 12. Salvia (Salvia spp.)
- 13. Helenium (Helenium spp.)
- 14. Lupine (Lupinus spp.)
- 15. Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
- 16. Lamb’s ear (Stachys byzantina)
- 17. Bee balm (Monarda spp.)
- 18. Blanket flower (Gaillardia spp.)
- 19. Poppy (Papaver spp.)
- 20. Foxglove (Digitalis spp.)
- Summary
20 biennial and perennial flowers to grow for autumn seed saving
Flower seeds are wonderful gifts around the holidays, and they also make fabulous hostess gifts too. Some perennial seeds can even be worked into “seed bombs” to plant wildflower gardens on the go. Below are some of the best perennials to start out with if you’re new to saving seeds, but you can experiment with other perennial and biennial plants to see what other seeds you can save in autumn!
1. Coneflower (Echinacea spp.)
| Plant name: | Coneflower |
| Light requirements: | Full sun |
| Water requirements: | Moderate to low |
| Growing zone: | Zones 4 to 9 |
Coneflowers are known for their big and colorful flowerheads, which make stunning cut flowers and excellent pollinator plants too. But these perennials are also ideal for seed saving, and their seeds are some of the easiest to collect. Just allow the seeds to dry on the plant’s stem, snip off the coneflower bloom after it’s dried, place it in a paper bag to collect the seeds, and allow the flower to dry a few more days indoors.
When collecting coneflower seeds, grab as many seeds as you need for next year’s garden, but be sure to leave some flowerheads in place too. Coneflower seeds are an important winter food source for wild birds like finches!
2. Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)
| Plant name: | Black-eyed Susan |
| Light requirements: | Full sun to part shade |
| Water requirements: | Moderate |
| Growing zone: | Zones 3 to 10 |
Like coneflowers, black-eyed Susans are some of the best perennials to collect seeds from if you’re new to seed saving. Not only are the seeds very easy to harvest, but black-eyed Susan seeds are super quick to germinate in gardens and planters too. However, these seeds are also coveted by wild birds, so remember to leave some flowers in your garden for songbirds to feast from!
After black-eyed Susan seeds are fully dried, you can spread out the flowerheads on a baking sheet and shake out the dried seeds. Separating the seeds from the dried flowers will make planting easier next year, and you’ll have less plant bulk to store over the winter months.
3. Milkweed (Asclepias spp.)
| Plant name: | Milkweed |
| Light requirements: | Full sun |
| Water requirements: | Moderate to low |
| Growing zone: | Zones 4 to 9, depending on a variety |
One of the absolute best pollinator plants around, milkweed is a magnet for butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees, and it’s a must-have in any habitat garden. But if you already have milkweed growing in your space, saving the seeds from these plants makes a lot of sense because it’s the best way to get more free milkweed!
Milkweed seeds form in large pods that split open to release the seeds and their fuzzy, white floss. It’s easiest to harvest milkweed pods when they’re filled out but before they split open. You can make sure the pods are mature by pressing them gently – if the pods split under pressure, they’re ready to pick!
4. Joe Pye weed (Eutrochium purpureum)
| Plant name: | Joe Pye weed |
| Light requirements: | Full sun to part shade |
| Water requirements: | High |
| Growing zone: | Zones 4 to 8 |
Joe Pye weed blooms look a lot like milkweed flowers, and they’re also highly attractive to pollinators. However, Joe Pye weed is a significantly larger plant that can grow up to 8’ tall, and plants are often found growing in moist areas, such as along streambanks and in marshy areas.
The best time to collect Joe Pye weed seeds is in late September when the seed heads are nice and dry. Clip off the seed heads and hang them upside down in a paper bag indoors until all of the moisture has evaporated. Then, collect the dried Joe Pye weed seeds in a small seed envelope and date and label your seeds so you remember to use them when they’re still fresh.
5. Silver dollar plant (Lunaria annua)
| Plant name: | Silver dollar plant |
| Light requirements: | Full sun to part shade |
| Water requirements: | Moderate |
| Growing zone: | Zones 5 to 9 |
Also known as the money plant or honesty, the silver dollar plant is a favorite among florists, but it also makes a dainty addition to pollinator gardens and cottage gardens too. While this plant produces clusters of delicate, purple flowers, the silver dollar plant is mostly known for its dried seed pods that have a silvery hue and are often used in dried floral bouquets.
Silver dollar plants are easy to save seeds from, and an added perk is that you can still use the plant’s silvery pods in arrangements even after collecting the seeds from them. Technically a biennial, silver dollar plants won’t flower and produce seeds until their second year, but they’re worth the wait. Plus, if you save seeds from these plants, you won’t have to purchase new plant starts every two years!
6. Aster (Aster spp.)
| Plant name: | Aster |
| Light requirements: | Full sun to part shade |
| Water requirements: | Moderate to low |
| Growing zone: | Zones 3 to 8 |
A top plant to keep in autumn gardens, asters are some of the last plants to flower in fall, and they provide a late-season snack of pollen and nectar to bees and other pollinators. There are lots of different types of asters, and many of them are native to the United States and Canada. These plants are often spotted growing wild along roadways and hiking trails, but you can also purchase ornamental varieties at plant nurseries.
Aster seeds are ready to harvest when the plant’s petals have fallen away, and the plant’s golden center turns a dusty brown. To harvest, you can snip off the plant’s stems and hang them up to dry indoors, or you can clip off just the flower heads and allow them to finish drying on a sheet pan. Another option is to simply crumble the dried seeds directly into a paper bag while you’re in your garden!
7. Hollyhock (Alcea rosea)
| Plant name: | Hollyhock |
| Light requirements: | Full sun |
| Water requirements: | Moderate; always water hollyhocks at the soil line to prevent mildew issues |
| Growing zone: | Zones 3 to 8 |
Like silver dollar plants, hollyhocks are biennials that produce seeds in their second year, so you’ll need to be patient if you want to collect your own hollyhock seeds. After blooming, hollyhocks produce an abundance of seeds, which can be allowed to self-sow. However, if you want to plant hollyhocks in deliberate places in your landscape or you’ve thought about growing hollyhock starts to share with friends or to sell at the market, saving the seeds from these plants in autumn is a must.
Hollyhocks come in a delightful array of colors, including purple, red, yellow, and a near-black tone. These plants are members of the mallow family, and they’re ideal for adding a splash of color to garden beds!
8. Bellflower (Campanula spp.)
| Plant name: | Bellflower |
| Light requirements: | Full sun to shade, depending on a variety |
| Water requirements: | High to moderate |
| Growing zone: | Zones 3 to 10 |
Some species of bellflower are native to the United States, while other species hail from Western Asia, Africa, and Europe. These plants are named for their bell-shaped flowers, which usually come in shades of purple or white, but you can find cultivars with pink or blue flowers too. Bellflowers generally bloom through summer before producing mature seeds in autumn.
Bellflower seeds require light to germinate, so if you’ve saved the seeds from these plants through the winter months, don’t spoil them by planting them too deep in spring! Instead, evenly scatter bellflower seeds across the top of the soil line and then lightly press the seeds into moist earth.
9. Mallow (Malva spp.)
| Plant name: | Mallow |
| Light requirements: | Full sun to part shade, depending on a variety |
| Water requirements: | Moderate |
| Growing zone: | Zones 3 to 8 |
The Mallow family is a large one that includes many plant species found around the globe. Mallow plants often have pink, white, or purple flowers, and they can be used as statement plants in ornamental gardens, porch planters, or groundcover designs. Some species of mallow are edible, while others have been used medicinally or to make perfumes (the musk mallow is a good example of this!)
The mallow family includes annuals, biennials, and perennials, but most of these plants produce seeds that can be collected in fall. For best results, aim to gather your mallow or other perennial flower seeds on a dry day when it hasn’t rained for a bit, so you won’t have to dry your seeds as long.
10. Columbine (Aquilegia spp.)
| Plant name: | Columbine |
| Light requirements: | Full sun to part shade |
| Water requirements: | Moderate |
| Growing zone: | Zones 3 to 9 |
Columbines commonly grow along forest margins, and they’re a top choice for shady gardens and lower-light areas, although columbines can also grow in the sun. Columbine blooms come in a rainbow of colors, including red, purple, white, and blue.
Columbines typically flower in spring to early summer, and their seeds are ready to pick towards the end of summer and into early fall. If you don’t gather columbine seeds in time, these plants are adept at self-sowing, which is usually a good thing because columbine plants are relatively short-lived. You can keep your columbines going for generations by saving their seeds, or you can collect seeds to share with friends.
11. Forget me not (Myosotis spp.)
| Plant name: | Forget me not |
| Light requirements: | Full sun or part shade in hot climates |
| Water requirements: | High to moderate |
| Growing zone: | Zones 3 to 8 |
Forget me nots are the darlings of the garden with petite, color-changing flowers that start out with pink buds and mature into periwinkle blue blooms. Easy to start from seed and highly adaptable, forget-me-nots can be planted as border plants or container plants, and they fit right into cottage garden landscapes.
There are two main types of forget me nots: the true forget me not and the woodland forget me not. The true forget me not is a perennial, while the woodland variety is shorter lived. Forget me nots are great at self-sowing, but if you collect seeds, you can start these plants indoors or outdoors in spring.
12. Salvia (Salvia spp.)
| Plant name: | Salvia |
| Light requirements: | Full sun to part shade, depending on a variety |
| Water requirements: | Moderate to low |
| Growing zone: | Zones 4 to 10, depending on a variety |
Salvias belong to a large group of plants that includes over 1000 different species. Some salvias are annuals, and others are perennials, and this plant family includes both short ornamentals and shrub-like plants. Salvia flowers also come in an assortment of colors, but most salvias have one thing in common: pollinators love them!
Whether you’re growing salvias simply for enjoyment or to help out wildlife, these plants are relatively easygoing, and they can adapt to a range of growing conditions. Salvia seeds will be ready to harvest a week or two after flowering when the seed pods turn a brownish-gray color. Snip off the dried flowers into a paper bag to prevent the seeds from scattering, and then store the seeds indoors, where they should remain fresh for about 3 years.
13. Helenium (Helenium spp.)
| Plant name: | Helenium |
| Light requirements: | Full sun |
| Water requirements: | High to moderate |
| Growing zone: | Zones 3 to 9 |
Also known as sneezeweed, helenium is native to North America, and it’s often found growing in moist habitats and along forest margins. Native helenium has yellow blooms, but careful breeding by plant scientists has produced cultivars with red, bronze, and orange flowers too. What’s more, these plants are irresistible to butterflies, which is partly due to the fact that they flower later in the season than many other garden plants.
Most gardeners grow helenium from nursery starts, but these plants can also be grown from seed, which is even less expensive if you save your own! Like many other flowering plants, helenium seeds need light to germinate, so don’t bury them too deep in the soil when you plant them.
14. Lupine (Lupinus spp.)
| Plant name: | Lupine |
| Light requirements: | Full sun |
| Water requirements: | Moderate |
| Growing zone: | Zones 3 to 8 |
Lupines are the stars of spring gardens, noteworthy for their large, pink, purple, blue, or white flowers and their whorled leaves. These plants readily self-sow, but you can also save seeds by gathering them in the fall.
Lupine seeds can be harder to germinate than some other seeds on this list because they do require a period of stratification to sprout. Planting lupine seeds outdoors in autumn can simplify this task, or you can stratify seeds indoors in spring using your fridge. Large-leafed lupine is one of the most common lupines around, but if you’re interested in native plants, consider investing in wild lupines (Lupinus perennis), which are scarce in the wild and the only host plant of the endangered Karner blue butterfly.
15. Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
| Plant name: | Yarrow |
| Light requirements: | Full sun to part shade |
| Water requirements: | Low |
| Growing zone: | Zones 3 to 9 |
Yarrow is another pollinator favorite and a super easy-going plant that can grow in many different soil types. Sandy or clay-heavy soils are no match for tough-as-nails yarrow plants, and yarrow can even handle some shade and high salinity environments too!
Wild yarrow typically has white flowers, and it commonly self-sows along roadways and hiking trails. Cultivated yarrow is a showier plant with broad clusters of flowers coming in shades of pink, yellow, and orange. Both yarrow types bloom throughout the season, from spring through fall, but you can collect yarrow seeds in autumn when the flowerheads turn brown.
16. Lamb’s ear (Stachys byzantina)
| Plant name: | Lamb’s ear |
| Light requirements: | Full sun to part shade |
| Water requirements: | Moderate |
| Growing zone: | Zones 4 to 8 |
A top pick for touch gardens and planting gardens where children are afoot, everyone loves lamb’s ear for its fuzzy leaves! But lamb’s ear is a highly ornamental plant that can be grown in flower gardens or used as a low-maintenance groundcover. It also produces loads of pinkish-purple flowers that bees and other pollinators can’t get enough of.
While lamb’s ear looks lively in summer, the plant can become bedraggled in autumn, so many gardeners prune away the spent flowerheads to clean up the look of their plants. But when you snip off the dried lamb’s ear blooms, don’t throw them in the trash. Instead, save the seeds they contain for next year’s garden!
17. Bee balm (Monarda spp.)
| Plant name: | Bee balm |
| Light requirements: | Full sun |
| Water requirements: | Moderate |
| Growing zone: | Zones 3 to 9 |
Also known as wild bergamot, bee balm plants are a favorite haunt of bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds during the summer months. But in autumn, these pollinator plants produce large seed heads, which can be harvested for seed saving or left in place in your garden to feed the wild birds.
Bee balm plants are in the mint family, and they will spread vigorously and self-sow if you don’t gather the seed heads when they’re dry and brown. Saving bee balm seeds will allow you to plant bee balm exactly where you want it in next year’s garden, but you can also share bee balm with friends to help them create their own pollinator garden. Shaking dried bee balm flowers into a paper bag makes for super easy seed collection, and then you can compost the spent blooms in your compost pile.
18. Blanket flower (Gaillardia spp.)
| Plant name: | Blanket flower |
| Light requirements: | Full sun |
| Water requirements: | Moderate to low |
| Growing zone: | Zones 3 to 9 |
A fast-growing and cold hardy plant, blanket flowers are known for their bright, daisy-like blooms and spreading nature. Left on their own, blanket flowers will “blanket” garden beds with a dense mat of gold and red flowers. And, of course, bees love these plants too!
Harvesting blanket flower seeds in autumn isn’t complicated. You can either remove the entire seed head or pinch the dried seeds free from the spent flower bloom. Just keep in mind that blanket flowers grown from seed usually won’t bloom until their second year.
19. Poppy (Papaver spp.)
| Plant name: | Poppy |
| Light requirements: | Full sun |
| Water requirements: | Moderate |
| Growing zone: | Zones 2 to 10, depending on a variety |
Even if you’ve never saved perennial flower seeds before, you’re sure to have success collecting poppy seeds. Poppy seeds produce large, globular seedheads that are so distinct looking that they’re often used in cut flower and dried arrangements. All you need to do is snip off the dried flower heads and save them in a paper bag indoors.
Depending on how much seed-saving space you have, you can either save the entire dried flower heads from poppies, or you can shake out the seeds and store them in a small envelope. Poppy seeds are usually sown in early spring, and they can take up to a month to germinate, so patience is key!
20. Foxglove (Digitalis spp.)
| Plant name: | Foxglove |
| Light requirements: | Full sun to part shade |
| Water requirements: | Moderate |
| Growing zone: | Zones 4 to 9 |
Many gardeners grow foxglove from nursery starts, and they never think of starting their own foxglove plants from seed. But foxglove is an adaptable plant that is easy enough to cultivate from seeds, and foxglove seeds are also super simple to collect in your garden.
Foxglove seeds should be allowed to dry fully on the plant until the plant’s stem is brown and crispy. The seeds themselves are held in small, papery capsules on the plant’s stalk, and it’s important to allow the capsules to open on their own to ensure your seeds are fully matured. If you don’t think you’ll remember to harvest foxgloves seeds in time, you can snip the plant’s stems a bit early and allow them to finish drying indoors; however, foxgloves are toxic to pets.
Summary
Once you’ve gathered your homegrown perennial seeds, make sure to store your seeds in a cool, dry place and out of direct sunlight. It’s also essential that you label and date your seed-saving envelopes to help you keep track of your flower seeds.
Most perennial flower seeds will stay viable for 3 to 5 years when they’re properly stored, but you can extend the life of your seeds even longer by keeping them cool. Make sure your seeds don’t get moist, though, as this can cause them to sprout and spoil! For more seed-saving tips, we have a full guide on seed-saving right here.
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