clivia time again

I noticed that my clivia has flower stalks coming up in between the leaves , spring really is just around the corner : )
laura

Yeah! Don't you just love the dependability of clivias, once they are established? Mine should be showing buds any week now.

I do! I call them the perfect flowering house plant, they flower, then they can go outside untill frost is near, then down to the basement till march then they flower again

Wow! A yellow clivia! How nice. Mine is the regular old orange, but it's developed into a nice potful of plants that sends up at least three flowering stalks each year, so it's pretty. I just have to get me a yellow cultivar though. They were prohibitively expensive up to just a few years ago, but I've noticed they are coming down in price. Now if I can just find one locally.

I have a big orange one that I have had for 20 years at least and I just love it too. The yellow one was a gift from my dh a few years back. I seems to be less robust than the orange though. You are right they have come way down in price That last picture was very fuzzy ! I didn't realize it sorry
laura

here is the orange one

I took these pictures this morning , the first set of pictures were when they just started to push out the new flower stalks. Feb 24th and here they have been in full bloom for over a week .

a closer one

closer still

yellow

closer

sorry out of order

I've wanted one of the orange ones for years, but they seem too expensive for my play money budget.

I was given one a couple of years ago but no sign of flowers. Any suggestions? It is in a west window, filtered light.

They like being pot-bound (root-bound?) and seem to respond to fertilizer. Use a fertilizer formula such as "bloom-booster", or any that is high in the middle number of the formula (mine says 12-55-6). West exposure should be good, but not too filtered. The leaves should be dark green. I always put mine outside in filtered shade for the summer which it seems to appreciate.

Have not checked roots recently but have to admit feeding is very intermittant. Leaves look a good color. I will start feeding regularly.

I think the trick to getting them to flower is a period of dormantcy, they are native to africa and need a "dry "season to evoke blooms. Mine flower then when it warms up enough for them to go out they go into the shade then part sun . when the weather man says frost ( late october ) in the fall they go down in the basement then they are ignored untill march when I notice the bloom stalks pushing up through the clusters of leaves . I top dress them with fresh potting soil . I add a few cups of potting soil to my watering can then I add water and swish it around and pour it all around the bare roots to fill in any gaps that there might be . I fed them once in a while but no set schedual and I just use what ever I have around anything from fish emusion to mircle grow. I just don't feed them after about august 1st.
laura

My orange clivia is spectacular this year. It is quite a few years old, and has formed quite a few plants within the pot. Right now, there are 6 flower stalks, and old stalks with berries beginning to turn red. When the weather finally warms up, it will go outside for the summer on the north side of the sun room. It will get some morning sun, but that's about it. The plant will flower again sometime during the summer.

I also drag it back in when night temps are to go below 40, and keep it in a bright but cool position in the sun room. During winter, I just kind of moisten the top of the soil maybe once a month and resume a more regular watering beginning in February. I also fertilize with whatever I happen to have available when I'm near it - from all purpose to orchid fertilizer to fish emulsion. It has grown so big that just top dressing it isn't going to work this year - it's time for repotting and dividing.

I read on another gardening site that clivias need to have 12-14 leaves and be at least 7-8 years old before flowering. I also know that during the dormant period, the plant should be kept at temps of about 50 degrees. I think mine is kept just a bit warmer than that, but not by much.

Here is a picture of it just today:

And here is a picture taken of it blooming outdoors last August:

I think the important things include dormancy (warm but low-to-no watering), some fertilizer during spring and summer, and summering outdoors. The dormancy period doesn't have to be in the dark (mine isn't anyway), but definitely low-to-no water.

I think a pot-full of plants is just spectacular in bloom. I'm not going to divide mine until the blooming is affected.

Good luck, fancyvan.

I'd like not to divide, but the plant is literally crawling out of the pot and has become too heavy for me to lift and move around. I love a huge, specimen plant, and am truing to get a few of the orchids to become "specimens". Alas, many only bloom from new growth, and this renders my wish useless. This is one of the reasons why I so love the clivia! I have never seen any yellow ones up this way, but will jump on it when I do.