How To Grow Bachelor’s Button Seeds: Saving Bachelor’s Button Seeds For Planting

Bachelor’s button, also known as cornflower, is a beautiful old-fashioned annual that’s starting to see a new burst in popularity. Traditionally, bachelor’s button comes in a pale blue (hence the color “cornflower”), but it’s also available in pink, purple, white, and even black varieties. Bachelor’s button should self-seed in the fall, but collecting bachelor’s button seeds is extremely easy, and growing bachelor’s button seeds is a great way to spread them around your garden and with your neighbors. Keep reading to learn more about bachelor’s button seed propagation and how to grow bachelor’s button seeds.

Collecting and Saving Bachelor’s Button Seeds

When collecting bachelor’s button seeds, it’s important to let the flowers fade naturally on the plant. Bachelor’s buttons will produce new flowers all summer long if you cut the old ones, so it’s a good idea to harvest the seeds toward the end of the growing season. When one of your flowers heads has faded and dried up, cut it off of the stalk. You won’t see the seeds right away because they’re actually inside the flower. With the fingers of one hand, rub the flower against the palm of the other hand so the dried flower crumbles away. This should reveal a few small seeds – hard little oblong shapes with a tuft of hairs coming off one end, a little like a stubby paintbrush. Saving bachelor’s button seeds is easy. Leave them on a plate for a couple days to dry, then seal them in an envelope until you’re ready to use them.

Bachelor’s Button Seed Propagation

In warm climates, bachelor’s button seeds can be planted in the fall to come up in the spring. In colder climates, they can be sown a couple weeks before the last frost date. The plants do best in hot weather, so starting bachelor’s button seeds indoors to get an early start isn’t really necessary.