Heirloom Seed Gifts

What better gift than personally collected and labelled seeds from your garden? A pressed flower helps identify the seeds, and a fact sheet explains culture. Shake the seeds in a bucket. You may want to use a colander or tray to separate the seeds from their husks and from other plant material.

You can easily collect seeds from flowers in your garden. Be sure to collect them after the blooms have faded. Some good choices include cosmos, cleome, larkspur, zinnias and nicotiana. All of these are heirloom annuals, which means their seeds will produce the same flowers year after year.

Start by shaking the seeds into a bucket. You may want to pour them into a colander or tray to shake out the excess plant materials and leave the seeds behind.

You'll need to supply a fact sheet. Type out the important information on a sheet of paper, or find contact paper to stick labels on the envelopes. You'll need two envelopes--a smaller one which fits inside a larger one.

A pressed flower is a nice addition to the package to help identify the seed. Glue the pressed flower and the flower's name on the front of the larger envelope. On the backside, attach the instructions you typed out on the fact sheet. Fill the smaller envelope with the seeds, seal it and place it in the larger envelope. Be sure to tell the recipient to keep the seeds in a cool place until sowing.