BCSS - Forum

I have 3 plants of this species which are all the same clone and between 7 and 8 years old. The biggest two are now 50cm tall. Two have single stems and one has a single side branch a couple of years old. No flowers yet. Anyone with a flowering plant who can tell me when I might expect flowers?

at 50 cm you have big pachypus: in nature the plants that I saw with Brian Bates were smaller
I think the main problem is that we do not suffer enough pachypus in our latitudes and incidentally the lack of brightness

Hi,

Your plant is definitely big enough and I would say that if the side shoot was high up on the plant, that it has probably tried to flower from there. They definitely flower at this time of the year and put on some growth, but our poor light levels mean that any buds which are forming are not encouraged to progress all the way very often. Don't forget that this plant produces its flowers in chains, so I would expect any new buds come come from the shoot rather than the main stem.

Suzanne

Hi Alan,

I concur with Suzanne but let me also share my experiences with this species from here in (sometimes) sunny Kent.

My largest plant first flowered in Nov 2011/Jan 2012 when it was about 35cm tall and about 8 years old. I water this species from June until end November and most years new buds or sometimes segments begin to appear during August.
The first time it flowered, November 2011, the autumn light was poor and the flowers just sat there unopened until one opened on a sunny day in January 2012.
Some years the flower opens in November if it is a good autumn as in Nov 2015.
I remove the floral remains (empty fruits) each spring and root them down to propagate new plants. Here are the two fruits from January 2012 with five new segments.
To complete the picture here are the plants today. The main plant grew a segment last year and barely started producing a segment or flower this year. Time for a re-pot to reinvigorate it.
And these are my current propagations from earlier years' flowers. You can see one of these had flowered this autumn. I remove the segments every other year to root down separately and more segments will grow the next year. I remember at this year's TSG Annual Meeting such plantlets were among the first to leave my sales table!
A very rewarding species, one of my (many) favourites!

Lovely pictures of the flower Tony, Brilliant.

Very interesting Tony, and a simply beautiful flower, I don't think I've ever seen one in flower before. Thanks!

Thanks Suzanne and Tony. I wonder if propations from flowering stems start flowering younger. Mine start into growth around August, although I find I have to give them a bit of water in early summer to keep them upright. I have left the side shoot on and it continues to grow. Perhaps it is just down to light levels, although my greenhouse is essentially unshaded all year I guess it isn’t as sunny here as Kent!

Very nice plants though, Alan.
I would put them in bigger pots next year. I always find with columnar plants they will take more root room without fear of overwatering.

I don't remember what height mine was when it first started flowering, but it was higher than 0.5m, perhaps 0.7m. Might just have been poor cultivation on my part or it may be that different clones need to be bigger to flower.
Cheers
David Lambie

Thanks, they will certainly need repotting next summer as they have a dangerous tendency to lean when they get dry