October 18, 2026, 7:23 am | Read time: 4 minutes
Some plants reveal their second most beautiful side only after blooming: Their seed pods and fruit stands adorn garden beds and vases, and some even provide food for birds or shelter for insects. myHOMEBOOK presents eight species that offer something even as they fade.
In summer, the garden bed is full of color: red poppies, violet columbines, and love-in-a-mist in blue and white. Then the petals fall, and many hobby gardeners reach for the shears. But that can be a mistake, as some plants show their beauty again as they fade. From the flowers come seed pods and fruit stands, where form takes center stage rather than color.
Follow myHOMEBOOK on WhatsApp now
Love-in-a-Mist: Balloons Among Fine Threads
The annual love-in-a-mist blooms in blue, white, or pink, surrounded by thread-like divided bracts. After blooming, balloon-shaped seed pods surrounded by fine threads remain. Initially, they are greenish to cream-colored and often streaked with violet; later, they turn paper-brown and dry out. When the pods are ripe, they open and release their black seeds, which can spread around the plant. In dried bouquets, love-in-a-mist is a real eye-catcher.
Also interesting: Planting and care tips for love-in-a-mist in the garden
Columbine: Five Fruits, One Star
Columbine is a short-lived perennial with nodding, mostly violet-blue flowers and spurs. From each flower, usually five narrow fruits develop, standing together in a star shape and pointing upward. When dry and ripe, they open along a seam and release the black seeds. These can remain in the garden and produce new columbines, as the plant generously self-seeds.
Teasel: Spiky Heads for Goldfinches
The spiky stem of the teasel bears violet flower heads in summer, which later become large, brown fruit stands with numerous pointed bracts. These dry spiky heads make the teasel a winter eye-catcher. Goldfinches use their pointed beaks to extract seeds from the heads. Insects overwinter in the dry stems if left standing until spring.
Poppy: The Capsule as a Small Shaker
After the bright red bloom of the poppy comes a round capsule sitting on a thin stem. Under its flat, radially ribbed lid are small openings through which the seeds gradually fall out. When the wind moves the stem, the capsule shakes out its seeds like a salt shaker.
Silver Dollar Plant: Discs with Transparency
The biennial plant forms only a leaf rosette in the first year and blooms the following spring in violet or white. Then flat, oval fruits hang on the stem. As they ripen, they burst open and the seeds gradually fall out. Then the paper-thin discs appear, shimmering silvery in backlight. The fruit stands last long and are well-suited for dried bouquets.
Ornamental Onion: Spheres of Capsules
The flower spheres of some ornamental onion species can grow as large as a child’s head. After blooming, spherical fruit stands of numerous small capsules remain, where the seeds mature. The leaves have usually already retracted by then. In the garden bed and in dried bouquets, the fruit stands last a long time.
Seeds and Berries That Attract Birds to Your Garden
5 Plants for the Balcony That Love Full Sun
Purple Coneflower: Hedgehog Heads with Frost
In the purple coneflower, the center changes most after blooming. From the conical flower base emerges a firm, hedgehog-shaped fruit stand, between whose stiff spikes the small fruits sit. Birds pick them out. If the dry stems remain standing, frost collects in them in fall and winter.
Clematis: Feather Tails
Clematis are mostly climbing plants and bloom with small bells or large flowers, depending on the species. Long, silky-haired appendages hang from the small fruits. Many together form silvery, feather-like tufts that resemble the beards of old men and remain on the plant well into winter for some species.
