Clivia

In the wild, Clivia grow naturally in forests in South Africa that receive all their rainfall in summer. The plants go through the winters nearly bone dry. The plants grow on the ground under the trees, with their roots running through the natural litter on the floor of the forest. This provides them with abundant air around their roots and with a good organic mulch to grow through. Wild clivia do not as a rule send their roots down into the soil.

Clivias resent root disturbance but do require a restricted root zone to promote flowering and therefore make excellent plants for pots. In containers, your clivia will need to grow roots throughout the potting mixture.

Clivia require a fertile humus rich, well drained soil in partial shade.

Water once a week/fortnight during dry summer months and if you get regular rainfall during winter, it is unnecessary to water at all. While an occasional rain is very good for the plant, heavy or prolonged periods of rain will increase the danger of rot. Otherwise water once every couple of months during dryer winters.

A good time to repot or pot up clivias is in the spring, when they are just starting to grow vigorously again. You want them to be already starting to grow, so that their roots will re-establish as quickly as possible. Some expert clivia growers plant them in orchid bark mixes. Depending on whether you are just potting up a new seedling or you are repotting a mature plant, you can use either medium or coarse orchid mixes. Plant the roots spread out through the container and fill well around them with the orchid mix.

To induce a mature clivia plant to flower, the growth cycle must be interrupted. It is usually advisable to stop watering the plant at this time. The plant must be exposed to cool temperatures for the equivalent of about 25 to 30 days and nights. The temperatures should be kept between 55°F (13°C) and 34°F (1°C) during this period. Do not expose the plant to freezing temperatures (32°F or 0°C) at any time. If warmer temperatures are unavoidable occasionally during this critical cooling period, the overall cooling time may have to be extended. Without adequate cooling, the latent flower structure will not be activated, and the plant will not bloom, no matter how mature and otherwise healthy it is.

Harvest seed pods as they ripen to a red colour for the red flowering varieties and yellow for the cream/yellow flowering varieties. They can take up to 3 to 4 years to flower grown from seed.

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