How to Harvest Seeds from Gomphrena Flowers

     Gomphrena is one of the best beginner-friendly cut flower fillers. It is wildly easy to grow, and unbelievably prolific; but that isn't all. It adds both interest and unique texture to a bouquet.

    Bonus: it's also incredibly easy to save seeds from!

     Now that everything has been killed back by a hard freeze here, let's harvest some seeds from my 2025 gomphrena plants. Keep an eye on the Facebook page (you never know when I'll give out more free seeds!) 

How and When to Save Gomphrena Seeds By Hand

How to Select Flowers and Harvest Gomphrena Seeds

    When harvesting, you want to select the older, longer, larger seed heads. As the Gomphrena flower ages, it becomes elongated. This is due to the maturing seed within the pods, much like zinnias. 

    The smaller, shorter flowers are younger flowers. Those aren't going to have as many mature seeds, if any at all. 

This is what a Gomphrena flower or Globe Amaranth flower should look like (elongated) when you pick blooms to save seeds from. They may still be colorful. 

    Since we had a frost, all of the flowers are dead and brown now. Therefore it's a little harder to tell age by color and condition.

     Instead, I just look for the longer seed heads indicating that there is a higher chance of viable seed. One benefit to harvesting during winter is that the seed is already dry, and it's already been through a  mini stratification period. I'm going to allow these seed heads to dry out for another week before processing. 

Removing Gomphrena Seeds from the Flowers and Petals

    Once the flower heads are completely dry, it's very easy to knock the individual seed pods from the central stem. In the video you'll see how easily they pop off; the center can be thrown in the compost. 

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    Gomphrena is very unusual in the way that it produces seed. All of those little petals become little pods, and each pod has a secondary pod inside surrounded by a fluffy cotton-like material. The seed is contained within the secondary pod. It's a whole lot of material surrounding a single seed, yet a single gomphrena flower produces a lot of seed, while the single plant produces hundreds of blossoms. 

To the right, you can see a stack of gomphrena flower heads and the cores that are left behind after seed removal. To the left, you see a pile of seeds, still tucked within their little husks.

Should You Remove the Petals and Fluff from Gomphrena Seeds? Will They Still Germinate?

    The chaff, or the material surrounding the seed, creates a lot of bulk when storing. Removing the chaff can be very labor intensive, though. So yes, you could take the time to remove the chaff; personally, I will not. 

    The seeds germinate just fine through these little beds that they developed inside of, so I don’t bother. The labor costs outweigh the risks. I do believe there is a benefit to leaving the chaff in place- it appears that the chaff could retain quite a bit of moisture, making it far easier to direct sow this variety. I expect this variety to be an aggressive reseeder, but I won’t know until springtime. 

White Gomphrena (Globe Amaranth) seeds dried and bagged. These are now ready to join my seed collection.

Drying & Storing Hand Saved Gomphrena Seeds

    After I remove the seeds from the flowers, I leave the seeds to air dry for about a week. They're already dry pretty much, but to be on the safe side, I like to air dry everything indoors after harvest. You'd be surprised at what molds, even when you think it feels dry.

    Once it’s ready, I toss it all into a bag & label the variety! Generally, I like to write the variety and its specific name or color, the year harvested, and whether or not it was open pollinated or hand pollinated. 

Will Hand Saved Gomphrena Seed Grow True? 

    Since these seeds are open pollinated, there's no telling what we are going to get when these seeds grow and bloom. I grew light pink, fuchsia, and white gomphrena during the 2025 growing season, so I expect to have all three of these colors, perhaps with other shades in between. I loved having all three colors, and wouldn't mind a few different shades. 

    So we will see what we get next year!

    If you grow hybrid varieties, don't expect seedlings saved from them to grow true. They could be a similar color, shape, or size, but they won't be identical to the parent plant. 

You can see a mix of young flowers and flowers that are approaching or exiting their prime in this photo. The flower heads lengthen as they age.

Closing Thoughts and Discussion 

    Gomphrena was one of my favorite bouquet fillers last year. I greatly enjoyed the texture that it added to bouquets, especially with the dahlias that overwintered here and with my Agave Zinnias. The little flowers are so visually interesting. I also loved how long lasting they were in a bouquet, and even when they faded and dried, they were still beautiful. These flowers would be gorgeous for dry arrangements. 

Have you grown gomphrena before?

Do you grow other small spherical or oblong filler flowers that you like more than gomphrena?

Have you used this flower in a dry arrangement? If so, what did you pair it with?