Each little flower or floret consists of five fused petals that form a tube. After pollination, the flower’s ovule, which is buried in the receptacle, forms a seed. In many daisies, stiff hair-like structures, called pappus, attach to the top of the seed. These bristles are what’s left of the sepals of each flower.

Pansies like full or partial sun, but need cooler temperatures to thrive. The ideal planting site will get morning sun but avoid the heat of the late afternoon. Space the plants about 7 to 12 inches apart. They will spread about 9 to 12 inches and grow to be about 6 to 9 inches tall.

Annual and biennial pansies can act like perennial pansies in consistently warm climates, such as those in zones 9 to 11. Because there’s no severe cold to push the plants into a dormant period, they can go to seed, drop their seeds and those seeds can grow the following year.

Do pansies self seed? Pansies need insects for pollination in order to produce seeds. If you allow seed heads to develop on your plants, they will self seed in the garden and you may get new pansy seedlings. However, like many plants that self seed, the new plants are not likely to look like the original parent plant.

The seeds are wind dispersed around the parent and may be carried by birds and ants. The seeds can be dispersed in the mud carried on shoes.

10-20 days

Cut the stem at the base of the plant and enclose the seed head end in a paper bag, secured with string. Hang the paper bag upside down (with the seed head pointing down) in a dry area to dry completely, and shake the stem so the capsule releases the seeds within the bag.

Zinnias are among the quickest and easiest flowers from which you can harvest and save seeds. And they produce many seeds per plant, so you shouldn’t have to purchase seeds or nursery plants if you want to continue growing zinnias. You also might have enough seeds that you could consider giving away some as gifts.

A dark closet in a cooler part of the house or a dry, cool basement are both good spaces to store seeds for a year or two. Once properly dried, seeds can also be sealed in airtight containers and stored in the refrigerator or freezer for several years.

108 degrees Fahrenheit

Freezing seeds does not harm them, and can greatly extend their lifespan if done properly. All seed banks freeze their seeds intended for long term storage! Humidity is a greater concern with freezing, as a blast of warm humid air on frozen seeds can damage them.