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mjsdas

New help with Clivia watering and growing location

mjsdas
10 years ago

I am new to this forum and could use some help. I recently visited my son in LA and while I was there I had the opportunity to see many Clivia Miniata plants growing in various locations. I immediately decided that I had to have one. So when I returned to my home in CT, I set out to find a source to purchase one. I ordered one of the large specimen plants of the "Red" Clivia Miniata from the Ty Ty Nursery in GA. They call it red but it is really has flowers that are dark orange with yellow center. It arrived today and it is a relative mature large plant. After carefully rinsing off the roots, I potted it into a pot with Al's Gritty Mix 1-1-1 that I prepared according to the instructions posted on this forum. I used a pot that was approximately 2" wider around then the current size of the plants roots. This should give it an ample amount of room to grow and get bigger through the summer months.

I'm very excited about growing a Clivia Miniata but I want to make sure that I water it properly and at the proper frequency. I plan on using the Dyna-Gro Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 fertilizer at half strength every time that I water. Can anyone tell me how often that I should water this plant? Also, what is the best way to water this plant in this planting media? Should I soak the entire plant in its pot in a bucket filled with the water and fertilizer and let it sit for a couple hours and then remove it? Would it be better just to flood the plant with the water and fertilizer solution and let it just run through the plant?

I also could use advice on where best to grow this Clivia outdoors during the summer. A couple options that I am considering are on a north facing deck that I have that receives sun in the morning until about noon and then it is in the shade for the remainder or the day. Another option would be to put the plant in its pot and place it under a medium sized maple tree that I have in the south part of my yard. In this location that Clivia would get direct sun in the morning until about 11:00 am and then be shaded by the tree for the rest of the day.

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions that you provide me based upon your personal experience of growing Clivia plants especially in the northeastern US. Thank you.

Comments (4)

  • cocoabeachlorax
    10 years ago

    I am in no way an expert, but I'm learning. The best minimalist advice I can give you is just that, minimalist. I would think that Clivia would not like soaking, but rather letting a good stream of water run through thoroughly moistening the roots and soil, then allowing it to dry out between waterings. They do not like wet feet at all.

    Up north I would avoid direct sun if possible, but short of direct sun, as sunny as you can find for it. I grew up on Long Island and although you won't get the intensity of sun as we do down here in Florida, I do think that direct sun over summer may well bring you leaf burn.

    You will need to give the plant a dry period and some say a darkened period from about Halloween to Christmas to spur flowering (although many do not do the dark part of this and do get flowering). I'm only repeating what I've been told, I have a tough time getting mine to flower, but I suspect it's because it's too warm and too bright too much of the year where I'm at.

    I'm not sure about feeding the plant as frequently as you are, but hopefully someone else will chime in for that aspect. Enjoy your new addition.

  • Leafhead
    10 years ago

    I am new to Clivias too, but it is to my understanding that they need a cool period to bloom, around 55-60 degrees F. or so in the Fall, Winter to spur flowering. Your fertilizing schedule is right on: weakly, weekly c a 3:1:2 ratio. Also, they need lots of micronutrients, such as Magnesium, Manganese and iron.
    Mine gets direct sun until around 9:00 AM each morning and is doing fine. It gets high indirect light in a NE window for the rest of the day.

  • Ohiofem 6a/5b Southwest Ohio
    10 years ago

    Mjsdos: You are in the right track with your plan to use gritty mix and fertilize weekly, weakly with foliage pro. But, please do not soak the plant. It may seem like the gritty mix doesn't hold enough moisture, but it holds more than you realize and clivias do much better if they dry out between waterings. I sometimes go weeks without watering mine when they are outside during the summer and we have regular rain. I water them about as much as I do my jade plant. In fact, I incorporate osmocote in my gritty mix so I know they are being fed whenever it rains.

    As for the advice about giving them a cold treatment in the fall, that is widely followed in the clivia growing community. The standard is to give them 6 weeks of temps between 40 and 50. (Forget the dark treatment.) But I have a friend in Hawaii who grows them in his yard where it rarely gets below 70, and they all bloom more than once a year.

    Re: light -- I grow mine in dappled shade with a few hours of sun in the morning. Experiment by slowly giving them a little more light (but no full afternoon sun) and see how they do. They need some bright light. I grow mine in a southeastern facing window in the winter.

  • anton_1
    10 years ago

    The best advice i can give you for a soil mix's to use for clivias is the one i using every day when transplanting clivias here in South Africa. Take 5 kg compost 2.5kg silica sand and 1.5kg pinebark. Mix's it together and plant your clivia in it. Some more advice i can give you for the clivia soil mix's is when the soil is wet take some soil in your hands and press your hand as hard as you can together when you open your hand the soil must fall apart if it stays together there is a good possibility that the soil will be too wet for too long and you may start to get rood problems then. If u use chemical fertilizer for your clivias use a slow release fertilizer. that release fertilizer every time you water it. But use small amounts. Our clivias stand under 80% shade nett here by as and some of them stands under the trees. You get them get them in South Africa in the natural forests not in the open fields. They can take some sun but the sun does burn them when they getting to much sun.

    Do not let variegated clivias get direct sunlight the sunlight will burn variegated clivias.

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