The lily was already "flopped" from spending the winter in my basement. I guess I should just cut them off, but I thought it might weaken the plant. Hi Heather. You have 2 fish that made it? Were there casualties with the other ones? I was astonished to discover that I have a frog that somehow survived the winter. Yes, I have time. I should get a few tads to keep the big frog company Jeffrey

The seed pods have to be brown and dry - the seeds should be almost popping out of the pods. Hosta seed will be black. Your pop looks to be too green and immature to contain viable seed.

Depending on the variety of peony you have it could have viable seed inside. If you want to try to grow peonies from seed just be aware that it is a very long process, easily 5 years from planting to first bloom, and that the seedling might not (probably won't!) look anything like the parent. I've had no success in starting them inside, someone else will have to post a method for that if you're interested, but if you want to plant them outside you'll need to wait for the seed pod to change colors and split. This normally happens mid-late summer for me. The seed inside will look like small dried peas, can be any shade from a dark tan to black. My method is to cut the bottom from a 2-3 gallon plastic plot and plant it down into a shady spot in my garden. Fill it with garden soil and then just push your peony seed down into it, maybe an inch at deepest. The only purpose for the pot is to show exactly where the seeds are planted as you won't see any growth above ground until the following spring at the earliest. If you don't like the way the seed pods look and aren't interested in investing 5+ years into a new plant you can deadhead the seed pods whenever you like, makes the plant look better. Or you can just leave them there and let nature take its (eventual) course, I have plenty of baby volunteer plants....

The pods are from last season, I didn't notice it until the leaves started falling off. This is a tree that suffered pretty severe frost damage about 5 years ago. Half of the branches were exposed and the other half were under a porch eave. That side never came back. But, it's potted, so I just turned it 180*. If it wasn't pushed against, and supported by a railing, it might have tipped over by now? The conformation is ugly but it's a great bloomer, so I don't mess with it. If I screwed up, I might have to wait another twenty years, I'll only be 95. Looking forward to planting new seeds then; am marking my calendar. BTW, thanks for the news! El Bee PS, I have a Silk Floss grew from a seed I pilfered from the arboretum. In these many years, it has had many flowers but only one seed pod. I planted them and now have about twenty "babies" that are 5-6 years old. Win some, lose some, they say?