Strobilanthes Seeds

Last Friday I thought that maybe I hadn't managed to collect any seeds from my Strobilanthes gossypinus, but I was wrong.

A few remaining un-popped seed pods and the seeds.

For the record, almost all of these seeds came from the flower heads I removed early last week, when the stems still had some flexibility. Only four seeds came from the whole rest of the plant, which was already crisping up when I cut off the remaining spent flowers last Friday. I presume I had left that too late, and the seed pods had nearly all popped by the time I removed them from the plant. So if you want to collect seed, I'd recommend doing it before the stems have dried out.

Now the challenge will be working out what to do with these seeds; when to plant them, what conditions to give them. And it will be interesting to see if any of the seeds which must be scattered around in the garden actually germinate.