Roscoea cautleyoides
Archive entry 28.05.06
14th June 2005
Roscoea cautleyoides is probably the commonest of the Roscoeas in cultivation.
It is probably the easiest and least demanding of the species to grow and propagate.
It can be very variable in the wild, and endless variations have been named.
Roscoea cautleyoides is the earliest of the species to flower. The shoots emerge during april
, and as they break the soil surface, the yellow flowers burst from the tips. The stems will continue
to elongate, until the end of may or later, when they will be growing in stort stems emerging from the top
of the 30cm pseudostems. The long leaves are quite narrow and rushlike. As the seed pods swell,
the plants will usually produce a second crop of shoots that will grow to about 20cm before flowering
in late july or august.
This picture shows a rather typical plant in cultivation in full flower. As far as I know there have
not yet been any selections named specifically for the reliability of their early flowers springing
almost directly from the soil or from very short shoots. 'Early Purple' is certainly early and purple,
but it has produced a stem before the first flowers open. Every other potential variation seems to
have a variety named for it. They are all quite wonderful!
16th June 2006
12th May 2006
19th May 2006
24th May 2008
10th May 2009
29th May 2011