Brad, I keep my Clivias in a room that gets quite cool/cold at night...it stays there until placed outside in spring/summer.
Around Jan/Feb, as the days lengthen, buds begin to form, so you should see buds before placing in a warmer location. It probably has to do w/longer day light opposed to heat/humidity.
Living in IL, you know our Jans-March can be cold..Heck, we get snow in Apr and as late as May..LOL..
But, if you have a Clivia in bud, it may open faster in a warm room than it does cool/cold. I've never set mine in warmer rooms in hopes more flower buds would grow..Toni

Thanks Toni,
Based on your post it seems that you notice buds in around 6 weeks from now...so I should leave it alone. If it is cool (not cold) I will leave it the spahouse all winter, but something tells me the nights in jan that can be below zero might be too cold for it. In which case I will bring it into an attached sunroom that is bright and cool at night.
I want to keep it in the spahouse as long as possible. I can't remember the lowest temp last year - but the night time temps have been hovering around 40F while outside has been less than 25F. This is a detached, cedar building, with windows and a covered spa. The day time temps (with the sun are easily 60-70), but those sunny days are the exception rather than the rule. I also have a dendrobium orchid in there, (just took the cymbidium indoors) and they all seem happy. It is bright and around every week on warm days I give them a mist with warm RO water in the am. Not so much to water them but to wash the leaves.

thanks for the info

I guess it was just taking its time, last week I noticed a spike coming up. Goes to show plants dont read the same books we do.

Hi,

Clivias will bloom when they want to. Most will bloom as your temps start to warm up. In California, this is usually March and April. The buds take weeks to reach above the leaves and open. Colder temps slow the process significantly. Warm temps will cause the flowers to open promptly, even if the stalk isn't above the leaves. Enjoy your blooms.
Craig
Sacramento, CA

Okay, I'm going to jump onto this post. I have had a rescued clivia from a friend for several years now. Last year, I kept it in my garage under lights (cool at night) and I didn't get any bloom spike. This year, I stopped watering and put it inside by a window. It is showing no signs of spiking and some of the lower leaves are turning yellow. What's the deal? It has tons of growth from the summer so I'm sure it should have enough energy to bloom. Must it be kept cool to spike?

Craig, exactly, I kept it in a cooler sunroom until the spike was well above the leaves,then moved it indoors into the living room in font of a bright east window. It then exploded into bloom. Yelow leaves are usually a sign of nitrogen defeciency, overwatering, of just age. An occasional yellow lower leaf is nothing to worry about, yet several might be of some conern. Whe you kept it cool , did you also keep it relatively dry? I didn't water mine for over a monthwhen it was exposed to temperature from 55F to down to 40's at night before it bloomed. I only watered when it was so dry, it was top-heavy, which probably too dry for a clivia, but I kind of forgot about it since it was "out of sight - out of mind".As long as it is cool - kept it dry. After the spike elongated well above the leaves, I increased the watering frequency, but the average temp indoors is 65-75F.

For those Clivia growers that don't experience the "chill" each winter, some growers actually put a couple scoops of ice around the base of the plant each evening for perhaps 6 weeks in Dec. and Jan. Apparently this helps. Others have been known to just put the plant in the refrigerator, but my wife would kill me for doing that! Fortunately we get several weeks of cooler temps each winter. Clivia do bloom better with a chill period, but it isn't an absolute requirement. The manager from Solomone's Clivia nursery says they require about 400 hours of chill.

Take care,
Craig
Sacramento, CA

I've been growing these wonderful plants for years and they always bloom for me. I do not put them in a cool room because I love the leaves so they are just with us all winter in the house. My technique is to water once a month from September to January. I take them outside in shade (no sun at all or the leaves burn) around late May and then leave them out all summer. Mine bloomin July, kind of late but always reliable. I leave them out until the temps drop to around 40 at night. I love these plants and rarely separate them because it takes them so long to fill the new pot!

I keep mine in a cool room, my basement, because I do not have windows or room any where else. I keep them down there under only 4 hours of light starting in November, up to 6-7 hours of light into March. They tell me when to bring them up, because usually by March, I know what ones are going to bloom and which ones are not. It is not just the warmth that can make them stop growing you flowers or nice tall stalks, but the combination of both warmth and light. The quicker you bring them out of rest, the shorter your flower stalks will be, the longer you wait, the larger the flower stalk. I still water mine, when the soil dries out, about everyother week, and never lost a one to root rot. In fact, I have lost a couple to letting the soil go on beyong dry for days on end. The roots themselves hold water like cactus do, but if the roots go beyond dehydration, they are suseptaple to root rot once watering resumes. Why, you can even kill a cactus from lack of water for to long a period of time:-)