of the season it a great way to get your seeds for next year! If you wait to cut your basil when a flower blooms, your basil will very slowly get a little bit on the bitter side. If you snip it at the bud before flowering it will not effect the flavor in the long run. We grow herbs for a living so, we need our plants to produce the maximum amount of healthy leaves so, that is why we cut early. We need the plants to bush out as much as posiible without using any chemicals. But, if cutting your basil at the budding stage as you do produces the amount of basil you need that's awesome. I bet I would envy your length of a growing season out there in Texas!