Monocarpic bulbs/plants

We all see plants, think got to have that and buy them. But how often have they bloomed and then done nothing after? Unfortunately, it would be bad business to tell us that a plant is monocarpic, meaning that after flowering that part of the plant or the bulb will die.
So I thought that it would be good to have a thread where we could list the plants that we have grown that are monocarpic, and our experiences of them. Things such as did they produce offsets/seeds, were they really worth the effort and the suchlike.
What I'm proposing to do is in post two create (and edit) an alphabetic list of the plants that you offer up, with the relevant post number and author credits.

 

Index of monocarpic plants grown by forum members.

Aeonium (post#9 - kristen)

Cardiocrinum giganteum (post#4 - longk)

Iris danfordiae (post#13 paustris)

Meconopsis (selected species) (post#3 - loveweeds)

Musa (Banana plant) (post#9 - kristen)

Paphiopedilum orchid (post#5 - longk)

Polianthese tuberosa (post#11 - longk)

Saxifrage (see text post#13 - palustris)

Sempervivum (post#13 - palustris)

 

meconopsis blue fertile group (everyone knows they are a bit tricky anyway, so no news here), bought as plant, brought over 1st winter with rain protection, it bloomed nicely and I cut the flowers off after flowering to stop it going into seeds, because somehow I had read that that would the way to make it survive, but it seems dead now, if I would have known I would have gotten the seeds
looks like I should have not let it come into flower that first time...

 

Cardiocrinum giganteum - the daddy of all Lilies! Grew it once. Took two years to reach blooming size, but when it did it was stunning! Reached almost three metres, covered in blooms and flooded my large garden (at that time) with fragrance. I was rather inexperienced at the time and lost all the babies that came up around it over the course of a rather wet winter, but I suspect that now I would not make the same mistake. The offsets are said to take three to five years to reach flowering size, but that I cannot personally vouch for.
Well worth the effort of growing in my book.

 

Paphiopedilum orchids.
Each fan (cluster of leaves) flowers just once and then over a period of one or two years will die. When buying Paphs, I always look for signs of new fans and old flower spikes in the existing fans. If all the fans have flower spikes and no new fans emerging I would walk away.

 

must have been a bit disappointing, that with the bulblets.. seems a stunning plant, esp if you have a few.. and it is perfectly hardy ?

 

longk, its meconopsis, spelling error in #2

 

Pretty hardy, if it doesn't get too damned wet!!!
In the second year I had four side growths, the tallest being 60/70cm.

 

Aeonium and Bananas spring to mind

 

Never knew that about banana!

A large number of succulents are monocarpic (Agave and Sempervivum are two others that spring to mind), but a then there are also a large number of polycarpic succulents too (Aloe, Howarthia and Echeveria).

 

Polianthese tuberosa is a bulb that is pretty freely available in GC's at this time of year. There is some argument as to whether it is truly monocarpic, but in the five years that I've grown it the flowering bulb has always withered and died.
The single form produces lots of offsets which will flower within two years, the double form ("The Pearl") is less prolific.
Unless it is an exceptionally warm summer I find them to be better grown under glass. This highly fragrant flower is definitely worth the effort though.

 

Bamboos? Aren't there some that take 100 years to flower? and some/others that suddenly flower all over the planet at the same time? Or am I making that up?

 

Many of the silver Saxifrages have monocarpic rosettes, in that the one which flowers, will wither afterwards and die. Advice is never to buy a single rosetted Saxifraga (except S. longifolia which is truly monocarpic and does not produce side rosettes). Same advice applies to Sempervivum.
Iris danfordiae also rarely manages to repeat flower, breaking up into tiny grains of rice sized bulbs which die before they get big enough to reflower.
Hermodactylus, the Mourning Widow Iris is hard to get to flower a second year too.

 

I believe that you're correct.

It's all too common around the local car boot to see one particular "booter" selling a single flowering rosette of Sempervivum!

I've heard of people lifting Iris danfordiae after blooming to preserve the strength of the parent bulb, but even then they say that it's 50/50.

I must be doing something right with my Hermodactylus as it's a reliable bloomer for me. But this year it set off too early and most of the blooms were lost to the severe cold, leaving just the stragglers to bloom this year.

 

I'm thinking we are getting slightly confused, true monocarpic plants dont form offsets, Am I right??
They grow for more than one season, flower then die.

Agaves etc. are often called monocarpic but most, not all, produce offsets, likewise sempeviviums. its only the flowered rosette that dies.
I've found Echium pininana to be truely monocarpic and a few Aeoniums, along with agave filifera.