Very few bulbs are propagated from seed. It is an extremely time consuming process and there are much faster and more reliable methods of increasing your bulb supply. Even commercial growers avoid this method, at least for most spring flowering bulbs. The admonition to remove flowering stems before they set seed is to preseve the energy of the bulb. It takes a serious toll on the energy reserves of any plant to develop and set seed and with bulbs, this depletes their ability to flower or produce offsets. Hyacinths are most often propagated by scoring the basal plate (the flat portion of the bulb where the roots emerge) to encourage the development of bulblets, which are then removed and grown on.

This (patented) hybrid Dianthus does not set seed. In the rare circumstance that it does, the seed will be non-viable or exhibit its highly variable genetic background. Not at all unusual for a highly hybridized plant introduction. This plant is patented, #PP 16029.

I harvested Helianthus seeds just yesterday. The great thing is that they will flower the first year from seed when winter sown. First year they're about 2 feet tall, then they shoot up to 5 feet in the following years. Such long-blooming shots of colour in the garden.

musey: well, there MAY be a seed pod, depending on whether the flowers get pollinated. i THINK they are pollinated by ants. i'm pretty sure they aren't pollinated by hummingbirds (like aloe and gasteria flowers normally are). and seed pods on haworthias are generally very small (regardless of species and/or size of plant (in my experience)). all the ones i've ever gotten are about 1-1.5 centimeters long. and regarding separating the plants; yeah, i would wait until after you collect the seeds if you are interested in germinating them (i've always been too impatient to grow from seed). just keep in mind that it'll take a while for the seed pods to mature and dry up before you can collect the seeds. this may take a couple months. on the other hand, if it doesn't get pollinated, the flowers will just dry and fall off, leaving just the stalk. at which point, it would be safe separate the plants. good luck! Bri.