CC roscoea to identify

[Carolyn]

First flowering of this roscoea from seed collected by Chris Chadwell in the Himalayas in 2015. Sown spring 2016. Unfortunately Chris did not give collector's numbers on this expedition, the packet was just marked "roscoea sp." I wonder if anyone else has grown the same one? It has rather a nice red stem. Any suggestions as to ID?

[Gabriela]

It looks very much like R. purpurea Carolyn, but close ups with the flowers are needed to be positive; widespread in some regions of the Himalayas.

[Chris Parsons]

Roscoea purpurea was my first thought Carolyn. Looks like a short form of it, if it is.

[Carolyn]

Thank you both for your replies. Today's rain has destroyed the flower - so no chance of close up photos for now. I have several plants, so perhaps another one will flower - although I wasn't really expecting any flowers till next year. Do they usually flower in their second summer?
I did take a pic from a different angle, but the colour did not show up well - the photo is too pale. The lower petal (or whatever the botanical term is for it in roscoeas) looks much larger than other roscoeas which I grow. In the photo, the rain has already damaged the fragile lower petal. Sorry, not a brilliant photo - taken with my new tablet.

[Chris Parsons]

When I have sown Roscoea in the past I have sown them early, in January or February, to give them an extended first growing season. I found that a number of the seedlings did flower in their second year when I germinated them like this; although I found that some of them went into an early dormancy (which worried me slightly).

The botanical term for the lower petal is the labellum for Roscoea.