Hi gg. I'm not an expert on poppies but I always let mine reseed themselves. As for collecting the small ones, I would suggest waiting til next year. Hopefully someone with more knowledge about poppies will answer.
Nicotiana is a flower I have never grown so can't help you there.
As for the bee balm, I have 'Violet Queen'. A few years ago it came up with a few double decker stems. Since then it has come up normally. I believe a lot of plants do this. Marg

Thanks for replying Marg. I will probably leave the poppies to reseed in the same spot and see what happens.
I was looking forward to the nicotiana, but if it doesn't take off, I will just try again next year, and I like the look of the double decker bee balm and am glad that it is not because of some kind of disease or something.
gg

gg,
It's quite normal for the Bee Balms to do the double decker thing. Think of it as a bonus. :O) I find that the sunnier the position, the more it does this.

I have a tendency not to gather seeds from flowers I feel haven't done as well as expected, but that's my preference.

In terms of the Nicotiana, from what I understand, they like a rich soil and lots of sun. I tried them a couple of years ago, but my soil wasn't where they liked it in terms of 'rich', so they pouted all season. That may have been what happened with yours.

I too have been disappointed with my annual poppies. These came small and I can tell you it's not worth it to collect seeds from these reduced sized plants. My mistake though, I had planted them too close to each other, didn't bother to reduce the number of seedlings and so most grew stunted.

I too had difficulties with Nictoiana only the lonely so I decided not to try them again unless I have the space for a large plant.