Try it with one. Deer chop mine back when they are forming and that branches them, but I think if you chop them back now after flowering it will die., but try it. Leave at least one of the 5 plants unchopped for seed creation. It will give you plenty seed. maybe chop them not too far down. It would be purely experimental. My gut says it won't work, but I would love to be proven wrong.

OK, thanks for the suggestion to try it on only one plant. I will leave the other plants to go to seed undisturbed.
Molly

I throw seed out in the fall and the spring for a year or two and that gets them blooming in the fall and the spring. Then they seem to establish themselves. I don't throw any now. They are there.

Winter before last I started seed indoors under lights about 6weeks before last frost , then transplanted in soil and I had two or three plants flower. I let them reseed over last winter and this year they never flowered. They are only maybe one foot tall nice rosettes but no flower stems. We did have a lot rain during spring and summer following the worst winter in 30 yrs maybe all that ties in.

As for the question in above posts I have read that you can prune off already flowered stems and they will re flower. I have not done this but may give it a try.

I plan to reseed this fall and add in more sand to the soil mix.

What are you thoughts on watering of these wildflowers? Some say they add no extra water and some do give water,, what say you?

I can now give an update on my Standing Cypress. I did cut the spent bloom stalk off of one of the plants and it did, indeed, reflower. The second flowering stalk was short and not tall and "willowy" as the initial blooms. Based on this experiment, I will not dead-head the plants for rebooming in the future. On the question of watering, I find that these plants require minimal watering. My plants are in a very hot, dry bed and few things survive there with no additional water.
Molly

Hummersteve, Down here the rosettes live through winter, so fall germinating seems to work the best. They are more of a biennial as Bluebonnets are. I think my friend in OKC has had success doing fall germination.

Molly, I do not irrigate them on my very porous soil.

Yes you can. You don't even have to deadhead. After the bloom dies back, let the ground dry out and then water well every other day and it will bloom again. I've found that I can only get two blooms out of them though.