Chris, leeks can actually be harvested at any stage of growth. Indeed, I much prefer the "baby" leeks, myself, when they're only about index-finger thick. More of the green remains tender at that point. Scapes usually are associated with garlic. Hardnosed varieties (and, sometimes softnecks if they've been stressed) send up a central stalk that would be a flower stalk. Except they don't flower or set seeds. Instead, a bulbous mass forms on the end, called a spathe. If left alone, the spathe will fill with bulbils---tiny, round, "cloves" that are clones of the parent). As they grow, scapes curl. Depending on variety, they curl anything from 270 degrees to two complete turns. Then they straighten out again. If you harvest the scapes, just before they curl, you accomplish two things: 1. You get marginally larger garlic heads; and 2. You get the great culinary treat of the scapes, themselves.

Wow, this is a wierd little plant! I guess I will have to keep a close eye on it - the bugs here would be all over it before I could get to it. Momo, we have our own little monkey - A little white kitten named DeCon that likes to swing from the trees.

Oh, come on people! Heathen had a point to make, and made it well. It does not usually kill plants to remove the flowers. I only remove the flowers if I want them for a specific purpose, such as eating them, or when I'm doing a general prune to tidy up a plant. I've said it often here that I could spend my entire life doing nothing else but removing basil flowers, but since I have other things to do, I just let the plants do their own thing. I have never noticed any deterioration of flavour. In fact, with many of my herbs, I'd have trouble using them if I bothered about the flowers. My rosemary, for instance, flowers constantly all year round. I defy anyone to detect the flavour difference of one stew made with non-flowering rosemary, and one made with flowering sprigs! Or chopped chives from a plant which is flowering, and one which is not. Or sage - or anything, really. It's not like you're going to sit there munching on just the herb - the herb is always added to something else. There ARE certain herbs from which I try to remove flowers. Stevia is one in particular - I've found over the years that the plant will often die down if you don't remove the flowers - but it will come back again, regardless of what you do to it. The flowers of all the plants you mention are edible. For annuals, it will help prolong their life if you remove flower heads. But usually not for long. I'll talking of things like dill, coriander, anise, rocket, and other short-lived annuals. For many of these, having them flower and go to seed quickly is very desirable at times. Once a parsley plant has started flowering and going to seed, the flavour definitely changes. That happens in its second year, when the flavour becomes more robust. Some people prefer it that way, other people prefer to use parsley only in its first year, when the flavour is milder. There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to flavour preferences and herbs.

When they look like these they are ready. For me it is closer to 2 weeks from when you first see the button head to the time it is ready for harvest. It sounds like your plants may have buttoned which is when a head only gets to a couple inches across and then stops growing. It can happen for a a few reasons like if the plants were exposed to cold temps when young or if the plants were root bound in their pots prior to transplant.