I will take that most of you are intimate with the typical magnanimous - blossom orange Clivia ( C. miniata ) and it ’s many natural selection one sees sold , often for exorbitant prices in plant catalog ( especially if they are yellow blossom forms ) , but there are six of so clear-cut species of this amaryllis relative available , and many , many crosses between the species . I encourage you to seek them out on net sites , Yahoo groups and on eBay ( be careful though with Taiwanese sellers ! ) , for even seeds of these more unusual forms will grow easily into flower sized works within 4 or 5 age – yeah , it ’s an investing in time and sometimes money , but so deserving it .
Right now , you probably are thinking “ Heck , I ’ve had a clivia for 6 years and it has yet to bloom- what am I doing wrongly ? ” . The verity is , when I kept cliva indoors , I too enjoy their long , leathery dark green leaves and ease of guardianship , but often found that beat them to blossom , at least on time in March , was dispute . Those of you who last in warmer orbit , such as southern California where one can develop these South African natives alfresco , are wondering “ what do you mean ? Ours flower every yr , on time ? ” .
Simply said , clivia answer to two thing – daylength , day and Nox temperature . The idea that they need no piddle is not true , although it seldom will hurt them , it is doubtful that it will stimulate flowering . Once we moved out clivia outside into the greenhouse , where they experience the sun rising and set each 24-hour interval , they flower on a docket , and they have never missed a class – which lead me to counsel that if you’re able to not get your clivia to bloom , that you should move it to a cool , if not unheated room , where there are not lamp after the sunshine sets . My plants are wet twelvemonth round , but I do n’t advise that you ever keep your plants wet in the wintertime , for decomposition can occur . I will say , take your plants outside for the summer and set them in a shady lieu , so that they can enjoy the rain , and then forget about them until declension . Indoors , position plant under a bright window in the winter ( sun is hunky-dory in the winter , if not essential ) , and be mistrustful of throwing off their schedule with Christ Within after hours .
If you want to examine getting some of these more unusual human body , you may breed your own , for clivia are easy - peasy from semen . The berry will ripen over a years fourth dimension , and once soft , you could slosh out the large source ( they look like macadamia tree nuts ) , inseminate them , and in a calendar month or so , a beginning will emerge and you are off . Clivia are sturdy plants , slow ontogenesis – only a leaf or two a yr , and plants will begin blooming after 4 or 5 years .
You do n’t have to be Luther Burbank to practice cover your own plants , and the genus Cliva pop the question an soft and fun way to experiment with amateur genetics and flower breeding . For the preceding 15 year I ’ve been working on the genus Clivia – not really in a serious way ( although it may search like it to some ) , as I do n’t keep records nor really name any of my crossbreed , but the solvent have been fund and really interesting to watch flush . I am an unskilled plant stock breeder , only dabbling here and there with a key brush , but the results are just as telling , I consider as the serious stock breeder get .
Ten years ago , Cliva were very expensive , almost prohibitively so , with some industrial plant selling for over $ 1000 US . Today , with EBay and seed exchange on - line , obtain an interesting Clivia crisscross is much easy . Sure , there are expensive clones , and since all good clones can only be properly propagated by division ( as micropropagation has remain problematic ) , the fine forms will rest dear and uncommon . Most of my plants are either my crosses , or those made in Japan by Mr. Nakamura , whom we visited ten year ago . As many of you know , we once have over a thousand plants . gratefully , I ’ve been able to cull the compendium down to about 200 industrial plant ( without Joe even knowing that the boring orange forms get tossed into to dumpster each class ) .
I essay to photograph all of them , as the nude eye seems to miss many of the nuances in each flower . I am amazed at how unlike each flower can be . Just hold back out the differences in this weeks installment of mid - season blooming plants . These slender , tube-shaped flowers are a form known as Cyrtanthiflora Group , or Clivia x Cyrtanthiflora , and they are the outcome of crossing autumnal blooming specie such as C. gardenii , C. caulescens and C. nobilis with the more common orange wide petaled forms of C. miniata . I find it interesting that these clivia bloom of youth half path between the fall blooming species ( C. caulescens ) and the spring blooming species , mainly , C. miniata .
Here are a few of last year ’s crossbreed flower , worth look at again , as when they bloomed all together , It was difficult to identify what was different between the variety . Now , with a exonerated mind , I can see amazing and meaning differences . Some of these , I feel , are worth naming and perhaps bring out . But I really have no mind how to do that , and really , will anyone care besides me ? Still , with some catalogs selling ‘ named ’ clones for $ 750 . I still believe that many of these are far nice .
Share this:
Related
