if you have more than one plant of a type .. let one go to seed.. while deadheading the rest ...

i wonder if your premise is correct.. in the sense that early blooms give better seed ... is that a thing.. or are you speculating ... im respectfully asking

ken

Good solution!I am just thinking logically and also going by experience. The first bloom is often the biggest and from the strongest seedling. Also, the size of the seed pods and the seeds are often proportional in size to the bloom. I am presuming the largest seed produces the strongest plant. Now, if one is collecting seeds from a hybrid plant there is some caveates. I have found that the seeds collected from patterned petunias produce strongest seedlings that are single colored and the patterned ones result from the mid sized seedlings. It makes sense in that the hybrid is usually not as vigorous as the species.

Nature is very profligate though, The seeds from a single bloom are often enough (for next years sowing), if carefully raised...so we can still deadhead to keep our flowers going, as much as we want.

I am going to leave a couple of seed heads from the best blooms and keep deadheading the rest. Hopefully those should not be enough to cause them to retire.