I know someone has already said how, but i can't find the post. I have seedpods, they are turning golden color. Do I pick them now, or wait till they are brown?
Stocks, a seed question
If you're talking about matthiola bicornis, I wait until the pod turns brown, beige actually, and starts to show signs that it's about to split. I usually let just a few develop because seed formation makes the plant stop blooming and I lose the fragrance, which is after all the whole point!
I've had good luck with growing these on the following year; the seeds don't last two years.
They are matthiola, but not bicornis. I think it's M. incana, the ten week stocks.
Very different... the bicornis is an insignificant, weedy little thing with flowers that only open at night, but the fragrance is intoxicating, smells like vanilla milk with allspice. I grow it where it's not really noticed (visually) but in a spot where the smell catches you by surprise on an evening stroll. I have grown the M. incana but found them not to be as fragrant.
I have seedlings of M. bicornis growing now(thanks Dori).
The M. incana smells like spice during the daytime. I like them. I put 5 or 6 plants in a 12 in pot and set them around the patio.