Bulbs: Clivias anyone?, 1 by DaleTheGardener

DaleTheGardener wrote:
Wallaby,

The best luck I ever had growing clivia from seed was in San Francisco, they love cool growing conditions, 10-15C at night and 20-25C during the day. They like bright filtered light, probably 30-40% shade when it is cool, more when it is over 25C. I used to go thru the park and pick the seed when it was ripe. They grew to blooming size in 3 years. Yours should do very well since you live in a cool climate (most of the year).

I have tried them from seed here in FL too. They grow much more slowly in hot climates and the seed gets attacked by diseases. I tried about 50 seeds last summer and ended up with 10 plants. Very disappointing. They are not troubled once they get up to a good size. The plants that I have here have flowers, but fewer in an umbel than the west coast ones I grew. The one exception is the yellow flowered type, it does very well here, equal to the west coast plants.

In SF they bloom twice a year, spring and fall, if well care for. I worked, very briefly, for the College of Norte Dame in Belmont and they had a clump that was 5 feet across, it rarely bloomed. I took it upon myself to fertilize and water the clump. In the fall it had about a 100 flowers, the sisters were very impressed.