I will just welcome you to the forum and second what G.Cook said. The seed pods needed to stay on the plant until they ripened (turned brown and started to split a little) to be viable.
However, iris is rarely grown from seed. Most people don't even let them produce seed pods, but cut the flower stalks off as soon as the flowers are done. Putting out seed takes some vigor from the plant. Iris multiply rapidly (almost TOO rapidly) from the rhizomes. You can just keep digging and dividing them, which is done in the early fall when the plant is going dormant.
Iris are very slow from seed. Had you allowed the seed pods to ripen and planted the seeds (in the fall, so they can have a cold winter, which they need for germination), you would have teeny baby plants in the spring, which would need a lot of nurturing and protection.
https://spacegurrrl.files.wordpress.com ... dlings.jpg
If they made it, MAYBE you would have iris flowers on your new plants in spring of 2017 and maybe not until 2018. AND iris in people's gardens are almost all hybrids, which means the flowers on the plants you raised from seed would not look like that parents (and you don't even know who the "daddy" was!). You might be pretty disappointed in it.
Just one caution. Don't start "neatening" the iris leaves. You can trim back the tops a little when they turn brown. But the iris needs those leaves to feed the rhizome to give vigor for next years plants. In the fall when the plant is dormant, you can cut it back to fans.
https://www.lowes.com/creative-ideas/ima ... 3711-2.jpg
If you are digging/ dividing/ transplanting, you should cut it back to fans like that (4-6" tall), so that the rhizome doesn't have too much leaf to provide for.
Best wishes!
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