Unless you are saving seed, there is no reason to leave them on the plant. They've not found that HVX can be transmitted between plants by cutting the spent scapes, but I still wait until they are pretty dried up.

bk

bk, here's conclusion presented at 2010 convention about hvx and flowers.

Paul

This may sound wasteful to some, but I got to thinking if you want to cut the flowers off, what if you bought some bulk plastic knifes, and just used one knife to a plant, so as not to spread anything..
I am not sure if this idea will be considered Genius or really stupid.. hahahah