The seeds ripen at different times. The lower ones will ripen first. You should see a little black seed within the dried florettes. I leave the plant in the ground and shake or rub the seeds onto a paper plate as they ripen.

Thank you for the info, Karyn :-)

Linda

I rub the dried flowers between my hands and let the chaff and seed (black seeds) fall into a bowl. If you blow into the bowl the light chaff and seed will separate. This should be done outside because it is quite messy. Most of the chaff ends up on you.

PC

Hi Linda,
If you want the Celosia in the same place you can relax. They reseed so prolifically that I pull out about 3,000 "extra reseeds" each spring. If you want to gather seeds I do it like this...I take a paper lunch bag over the bloom and while I hold it tightly at the base of the bloom I lean it to the side while I shake it and tap it. You will hear the ripe seeds fall inside. The seeds are black and look like shiny poppy seeds.
Next year I am going to only grow them at the very back by the fence because they get so tall that they hide everything else. Good luck with yours.
Tina

I have found that the seeds on my celosia are very hard to collect. One thing I did try that worked well was spreading a sheet on the ground under the plants and gathering the seeds(looks like seed ticks lol)each evening.

I just love it but it smells like skunk!!! Plant in the back of a border where you can enjoy looking at it and not smell it.