I don't think that letting your xNeophytum bloom will hurt future pupping, Stephania. As soon as a brom blooms the apical meristem (central growing point) is out of work, so that should trigger pupping (except for my stubborn Supernova, but that's another story). If it were setting seed, that could take energy away from pupping, but xNeophytums are sterile as far as I know. Most bigenerics are, anyway. If you remove the inflorescence it might just speed up the process a little bit, it's kind of like fast-forwarding it to the end and telling the plant "you're finished blooming now". The end result should be the same, though, so I don't really think it's worthwhile. Dyckias are a different story, though. They don't bloom from the center, so blooming does not destroy the apical dominance of the plant. If D. estevesii is a poor pupper it may be that in the wild it relies on seed production for propagation, in which case cutting off the bloom would send it a signal to go to Plan B. If this is the case, then the reason you haven't gotten much seed may be either because you don't have the right pollinators, or, as you say, the fact that all available material is from the same clone could be hindering it. Have you been able to germinate any of the few seeds you got from it? Maybe you'll have better luck pollinating the offspring with each other.

Bill, Mine do the same thing when there young, but after awhile the start to look like the parent plant, I grow my bills out side all summer in about 6 hrs of full sun and the pups grow fast and end up looking like the parent,the sun in Fl. might be to strong to do the same, maybe some one in your area can be of better help Bear

I also recently purchased a plant labeled Black Star. I was wondering if that was a valid name...Mine is dark green with "butter cream" edges. Regardless of what it is called, it's one I didn't have like this, so I'm happy. Here is a link that might be useful:

Vitorama, Here's my opinion about the Slipped Stripes/ Lillian True. Read closely on the photo page of Lillian True. It is a very dark black/green, with no markings. The yellow is a rich gold, and the leaves will all have different striping on front and back of the leaf. It really is a lovely plant. There are two different plants in this pot, Lillian True is the tall one with a small Forescate in the lower right. Sadly, I have lost almost all of this pot. You can see some faint cross bar markings, but that is on the newest growth, and disappears on the mature leaves.