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| Hi Everyone!
I am new to this forum but not to GW, some of you might know me from the Hippeastrum forum..I don't know if that's good or bad... A few years ago I was gifted with quite a few Clivia seeds originating from South Africa. Up until now I have just been watching them very slowly growing their 2 leaves..but, now some are really jobbing out with a nice hefty third leaf and I am now extremely interested! My question is: I think that if the color of the stem is purplish down at the soil line I can expect the flowers to be in the orange or bronze range..if the pigment is just green (no darker coloration at all then I can expect the flowers to be in the yellow range. Please correct me if I'm wrong...but, what about the bases that have a mild coloration in between the darker and just green..would they be peach or two tone?.. and, am I incorrect that the color of the base of the stem in an indicator of the color of the flower?
Unfortunately, now I am coveting a broad leaf Clivia (my favorite) with variegated leaves...I do so hope this isn't another addiction in the making... Donna |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Welcome to clivia lovers anonymous! Yes, they can be addictive. You're not likely to destroy your life, but you can do major damage to your bank account seeking that elusive special plant. You are generally right in thinking the color of the base of the seedling usually indicates the depth of color in the flower. But there are some exceptions. Peaches and some pastels can have colored bases. Do you have information about the parent plants of your plants? Orange is dominant, and an orange parent guarantees an orange seedling. Tips for growing clivias: they won't flower until they have at least 13 leaves. Do everything you can to encourage the growth rate. Seedlings benefit from different conditions than adults. Grow them in more light, with more warmth and regular fertilizing with a complete fertilizer with all minors in a ratio like 3-1-2 of NPK. Don't let them get root bound or go completely dry. Grow in a sunny window or under lights in winter. At Longwood gardens they can get their clivias to flower in less than three years using this method. I am growing some Chinese variegated darumas that have beautiful wide leaves. You might like those. Look for seedlings that are at least a year old with four leaves if you want to try them without spending a fortune. They are extremely susceptible to root rot in the beginning. |
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| Hi Ohiofem, Thank you for your reply! About 8 of my seedlings were labeled Clivia miniata dark, broad leaf orange/red/and bronze and are from South Africa. These are fascinating me as even though they only have 3 leaves, they all have rather dark pigmented bases.. a couple are more lightly pigmented (I love saturated colors anyway so various shades of orange are OK with me)..and the leaves are somewhat different on each..some are shorter, fatter, most do appear to be going to be with wider leaves (I think). I have some crosses that I bought from EBay that have green bases and these mostly have thinner leaves. And I have 4 newer just barely 2" seedlings and those too are all green(maybe it's too early for the base color to show(?)..and, I'm hoping for some peaches too.. As of today I have a total of 15.. who knows what next week will bring...;-) Donna |
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| I love your enthusiasm. I started out growing clivias in 2004 with one plant and six seeds from California that turned out to be very easy to grow. Then I went crazy and bought a bunch of seeds from China and South Africa, which turned out to be a lot more difficult as seedlings. In particular, seeds from variegated plants are a real roll of the dice. A mother plant with a lot of variegation is likely to produce albino offspring that can never survive. The best mother has only slight variegation, and usually no more than half of her seeds will produce variegated plants. All of those will be more difficult to grow than unvariegated plants. They grow more slowly and are easily sunburned. After investing more than a hundred dollars in seeds from international sellers, I only have two healthy variegated plants grown from seed. They both come from seed sold by Lily, a regular ebay seller from China. One has bloomed several times and I've been able to raise two more plants from seeds they produced. All of this is why I advise spending your money on plants that are a year or more old instead of gambling on unknown seed. I've gotten several nice variegated year old plants for less than $20 each. |
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| Thanks for the info, I too now prefer to buy a plant at least a few years old..(I want to live to see it bloom)!! Still, the lure of exotic seeds seems to beckon me..I haven't ordered any yet, and I didn't realize that the percentage of albinos ould be so great,that's good to know. I guess if I do order seeds I'd better order at least 20+ seeds so like you I may end up with a couple of good ones. But then again I'll just probably stick to the trusted Ebayers that I've dealt with previously. I really prefer the ones with the pinstripes!.. I will have to cool it for a short while, I did order two small plants from EBay very recently and now I have to wait for them to arrive to see what I did indeed buy.. Thanks.. |
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Donna: You asked about a photo of my Solomone Yellow on the other thread, but since that did not relate to the original post, I thought I would post some photos of my yellow and pale peach clivias here instead. There is unbelievable variation in clivias, especially if you grow them from seed. I got the two peaches in this group (Tessa and Sunrise Sunset) as offsets, so their flowers were very much as I expected. The two yellows (Solomone Yellow and Cynthia's Dream) didn't turn out very much like the photos of their parents, and in both cases I was pretty disappointed. These photos are from their first blooms. Later blooms are usually better, and often quite different.   |
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| Thanks for posting your pictures!! |
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