hidden seeds

After spending the last few springs looking from greenhouse to greenhouse for snap dragons, with no success at finding any, this year I decided to try growing my own from seed.  I ordered snap dragon seeds from a dealer on etsy and they did great!  I have been so pleased with the plants that I grew and have loved the various colors of the flowers.  So I have been thinking of next year... already!... I know.... but I have been trying to pay close attention to the flowers and plant.  Enough to find where the seeds are coming from.  The pretty flower heads on my snap dragons seemed to just fall off when they were finished blooming.  I picked up a fallen flower one day and really examined it.  There was really nothing I could see that would turn into a seed in there.  So I really got to looking around the plant itself and was so excited at what I found.  At the base of each flower there is a pod and when the flower head falls off the pod remains and is full of tiny seeds.  TaaDaa! Of course they need to mature so when the pods begin to turn brown is when I guess they are ready.  I have also found this year that petunias have the very same type of seed pods and is also a plant that drops it's flowers.  Neat huh!?  I plan to collect enough to have more beds of snap dragons next year and possibly even label which seed is which color so as to separate them.  There is something special about the mixed colors all together though.

This is the second year these petunias have come back on their own.  

Finding where the seeds are coming from explains why!

Finally got a decent macro shot out of my new point and shoot camera.