Dianthus seed pods will turn brown. Wait to harvest until the flower and stem are dry and dead and the pods will fall right off into your hand. 4 o'clock seeds "rattle" (move freely in the little cup that holds them) and have turned almost black when ready to harvest. Enjoy. ;) Dave

Thank you Darlene! Everything I've read has said to take the new tender growth, so that's interesting. I will try taking some more hardened growth next... I'll try anything at this point. It looks like, out of at least 28 cuttings, I may have one survivor holding on... so... progress? Not exactly the 90% success rate that everyone talks about :( Ultimately, I'm hoping for about 4 or 5 Lavender Cotton plants to fill in one space of my garden and 4 more of my Munstead Lavender to finish out a small hedge. Definitely too hot to try and root them outside right now - though I did try it for some of the lavender cotton (it was doomed from the start). I've been hoping that starting indoors will have more success - I'm also going to try a lighter seed starting mix next instead of the potting soil. I will try a few out in the garden soil this fall to see how they do. I've got a few more sheltered places in the garden where they may survive. When they do finally root outside, do you dig them up and move them, or are you rooting them in small pots outside that can be moved around?

in spring ... remove any of the branches that are ugly or damaged .... back to an inch or two ... put the power into the new growth .... in the way back machine ,... with no web .... and no guidance .... i would cut half the clump back to a few inches ... after i could see where the new stems .. and i would leave half there ... then i would observe it this season ... and see which option worked best ... i bet in most instances.. i eventually cut back all the flopping ones .... and then i moved to acreage ... and decided to just let plants do whatever they wants ... more along babs method ... the beauty of perennials ... once you establish the root mass ... that is really all that matters.. and you should have years of pleasure ... no matter what you do with the top ken

in my experience.. they are not a long lived plant ... and i would be happy with getting 4 years out of it ... of course.. others will chime in.. that great grand ma brought it over on the mayflower.. and it has been in the family garden for a century.. lol ... and i would suggest.. you not get wrapped up on getting an exact duplicate ... in the flower world ... the newest and brightest stuff commands the highest price.. and older stuff just goes by the wayside ... even if they look exactly the same.. lol ... one way to avoid a situation like this ... is to divide your plants .. to keep them more vigorous... but also to have duplicates in other parts of your garden... and if one dies.. you have other to continue the tradition ... if you are going to hang around with us.. add your location on your members page.. so it shows up in all your posts ...if we knew such.. we might have a better idea of how long it should live ... ken