Rhodophiala 2021

[fermi de Sousa]

This year the first to flower are the seedlings of my cross between the ox-blood and the orange-red forms,
cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

 Rhodophiala bifida pink form - from seed from Forumist Santiago a few years ago
cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

Rhodophiala bifida dark red or "ox-blood" form
cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

Rhodophiala bifida light red form, pics taken 4 days apart
cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

The seedling (orange-red x ox-blood) bulbs are now in seed and a few are re-flowering
cheers
fermi   

[ashley]

Very nice Fermi.  Do they self-seed for you?

[Rick R.]

I am new to Rhodophiala,and I have questions....

I didn't realize that they could re-flower in the same season.  Can one bulb have multiple growing points?  Or are they offsets, and the offsets are blooming later?

[fermi de Sousa]

Very nice Fermi.  Do they self-seed for you?

Hi Ashley,
these ones set a lot of seed and I wasn't able to collect it all so I'm expecting to find self-sown seedlings over the next couple of years. I have found that some clones are self-sterile but there are over a dozen different seedlings here so they set a lot of seed. I may have to dead-head them in future!
cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

I am new to Rhodophiala,and I have questions....

I didn't realize that they could re-flower in the same season.  Can one bulb have multiple growing points?  Or are they offsets, and the offsets are blooming later?

Hi Rick,
I'm fairly new to them as well having bought my first in the 1990s! But only started getting reasonable flowering in the early 2000s. These seedlings are the only ones to have exhibited this re-flowering as far as I can remember. I haven't dug down to see if the second flowers are from offsets or from the main bulb - mainly because the bulbs have dragged themselves down a fair distance! If I can expose the bulbs I'll let you know,
cheers
fermi

[johnw]

Rick/Fermi

I have about 20 spp. of Rhodphiala and have never seen repeat flowering unless they were mislabelled Habranthus (usually tubispathis).  Some of the species have not flowerred after 15 or more years. Easily recognized after a few years by the long bulb necks, see photo - splendens has yet to flower.

john