I have plants in buckets sending up flowers, horrible small flowers, as one one expect in a bucket. I would never stress the plant by trying to set a pod, but was wondering if that pollen was as good, as if the plant was show worthy.

I think you might be able to look at the pollen and tell to some extent. If the pollen is dry, fluffy and has good color to it, then I think it would be good pollen. If you know the plants blooms are just distorted because of the planting media and the container they have been in I would say go for it.

Well I could not resist. Like you mentioned, the pollen was dry and fluffy and I went for it. You would have thought, I would have thought about this before, but....it was yesterday before it confounded me.

Well, my concern is why the small flowers to start with? I know several people here on the forum grow almost all there plants in pots and buckets and they seem to have normal sized flowers. What type of "soil" do you have in your buckets and how large are your buckets?
I just solved a mystery NOID I had in the garden, it was a transplant of a division of 'Whooperee'. The clump is a nice size with nice foliage, but the blooms are noticeably smaller than the original clump of 'Whooperee'. Glad they were blooming at the same time. What jogged my memory was that that same day I also transplanted a division of 'Lady Neva' right next to the 'Whooperee' division and 'Lady Neva' bloomed today. I don't actually remember the blooms on transplants ever being smaller.
I have some proliferations I planted last year in small (2 qt. maybe) pots, I hope at least one of them blooms this year so I can see what size blooms can be expected.