Wow, lots of saving seed posts lately! It seems like lately every time I go into my garden there is another seed waiting to be saved. Yesterday I was working in my front yard raised bed and I noticed that my calendula flowers looked rather tired and slumped over. I looked closer and noticed that some of the flower heads were dry and the seeds ready to be harvested. This variety of calendula was called Pink Surprise… but the pink never surprised me. The flowers were all orange so I am not sure where the pink came into play. 

The seeds are super easy to collect. This is my first time growing calendula and my first time saving the seed. It was pretty self explanatory! I just picked off the flower heads and broke them apart revealing the seeds inside. The seeds were a brownish gray and are curled up. I think the calendula seed looks like mini armadillos curled up. They even have spiny backs! 

Calendula is self seeding which means next year I probably will have it pop up on its own again. This is great because I really tend to focus on edibles first and flowers second (or not at all!). I am trying to make an effort to integrate more flowers into my garden and this will definitely be a gardening goal for next year. However I am saving seed so that I can either give it away or plant it myself if the calendula fails to self seed.