Apologies if this has ben answered else where. When do you remove your seed stalks? I still have some blooms just coming out but others have finished and the stalks have turned brown. When should I detach them?

Since the mother hen will die anyway, I cut them when I feel like it. I only keep them on as long as I do because the wool cutter bees love them so much. When the flowers are done, the stems get cut.

How do you go about storing them then @tabby?

Oooooh,
you aren't talking about cleaning up, you're talking about saving seeds. Sorry.

Yes I'm hoping to have lots of seed to share

They need to completely dry, as in crispy dry. They will hold the seed for a long time since they face upward and will hold the seed until you harvest them.
When dry cut the stem and upend into a brown paper bag, bowl, or anything that will hold them.

Thanks Lynn

Can't wait to see what you get from the seed.

So this is my flowers detached from the stalks... been drying out, now what do I do with this big mess, how do I expose these seeds from here? haha :/

Pia, can we have a close up of some of the seed capsules?

The blooming rosette will frequently die before the flower stalk and seeds fully mature. I sometimes will pull the dead rosette from the soil and put the seed stalk in a paper bag to collect the seeds as the capsules dry and mature, rosette and all. The seed stalks frequent die/dry out from the bottom up as the seed stalk is consumed by the developing seed capsules, so you have the option of cutting the stalk away while the seeds are still maturing.

I did not know that twit. I thought they had to mature completely before cutting them. This is good to know. Thank you for the information.

I had left these for at least 2 months before removing. I have my Bronze pastel flowerstalk still in the soil where it was and haven't cut it yet. I don't think my flowers on the Arachnoideum worked, I couldn't see any seeds in amongst the mess in the photo I posted earlier. I may have cut the stalk too soon then.

Oh Pia, how did you get all that color in your avatar. You look like a beautiful multi-colored flower.

Bummer on the no seed arach. Are you sure it has no seed?

Yes, most colorful and dramatic of avatars, Pia!!

Cool pic!

I just used make-up and colorful eyeshadows and then I edited the photo to get the colors brighter! :D

Very clever and artistic.

I like it!!
Thanks for asking this question Kate, as I was wondering the same thing, even though I did attend the workshop Can't retain all info!

But we weren't cutting seed stalks at the Clinic. No seed heads to be found yet.