Saving Celosia Seeds

Celosia, commonly called cockscomb, comes in a lot of colors and varieties and is one of the best self-seeding annuals. I got a bouquet at my farmer’s market that had some beautiful ‘Flamingo Feather’ variety that I would like to be able to grow in my own garden next year.

I let the flowers dry out for a week before they were ready for me to harvest the seeds. I snipped the flower heads into a Ziploc bag to shake, and a lot of the loose seeds fell out easily. Then I crushed the dried celosia further in a sieve over a bowl to separate the seeds from the chaff. Once I crushed the rest of the celosia heads, there were some fine bits of chaff that made their way through the sieve. I was able to gently blow away some of the chaff that made it through the sieve, but from what I’ve read, it’s not a problem to not get the tiny fine, black seeds perfectly clean. I saved them in a paper envelope to label and store until next spring for direct sowing.