You know, we've had several of these plants for years and they spread so readily by rhizomes I've never even looked for seeds. Once the flowers are spent we usually just cut the stalk or snatch the whole thing out of the ground to help thin them out.

Do you cross pollinate to get new flowers?

not quite sure if they're cross pollinating or not. its there first year of growth and they're already 6 feet tall and over crowding their area. I just wanted to try and grow one from seed just to see if I could do it, but I opened the pod and seen that they didn't look right at all. some are already brown and split open but the seeds are definitely not usable compared to photos and posts online

Possible that they were not pollinated so not actually seeds? Just remnants of unfertilized ovum (or whatever the botanical name is for unfertilized eggs)?

The photo above appears to be C. Wyoming which is considered to be a triploid; meaning it contains 3 sets of chromosomes (27) which causes very limited fertility (sterility). Our seed producing cultivars are typically diploids cultivars containing 2 sets of chromosomes (18).

There are several cultivars that fall into this triploid category being seed barren: C. President, C. Tropicana, C. Pretoria and several others.

If you wish to harvest seeds, you need to select different cultivars.

Kent