Hi Arch.
I agree with twit, growing conditions and variety play a big part in the flowering process. I have some that I've had for many years (10 yrs) that have not bloomed, and they make many offsets. Unfortunately it is a NOID, but I do know it is a tectorum of some sort. It is one that came from Helen Payne's collection.
Then there is a new semp I got last Jan., S. 'Hookerii', the entire clump bloomed, just like twit was talking about.
Jan, 2011
June, 2011
I did an experiment that twit suggested. I cut out all the bloom stalks to see if I could force the plant to produce more offsets.
Here it is a month later in July. It did produce many more offsets, some of which also bloomed, but about half of them did not bloom. So I was able to to keep from loosing the entire variety.
