This past weekend I brewed a fresh hop Saison with my homegrown Glacier hops, I just cut the flowering branches off of a couple of bines and tossed everything into the kettle instead of bothering with picking all of the cones off.
I'm not sure if I'll do this again as doing a hop harvest in the middle of a brew day was a lot. If I do decide to do this again, I'd bag the hops as they became a PITA when trying to drain the kettle. Flavor/aroma wise I think it worked well, but we'll know for sure once it's done fermenting.
Sounds like they just need some time then, hopefully you'll get some cones next year.