A friend at work gave me a small clivia a couple of years ago and I keep it in my south-west office window. I re-potted it last week hoping it might just need a little more room to bloom. How "big/old" does a clivia need to be before it blooms?
Mary L. in very "crisp" southern Ontario
"Ann B. Mullikin"
My amyrllis are blooming - one at a time which is nice. The bright red one now,
with a stalk forming on another Apple Blossom. The first Apple Blossom is over
and done but it hung on a good long time. The mother plant didn't bloom but
has two baby plants in the same pot. I have started giving these babies away
because I can't stay ahead of them. I repotted three the first replanting and I
suppose each one of these will have babies of her own. The red one never produces
any babies.
Wonder of wonders, my Clivia is finally putting up a blossom stalk. This past
summer I got tired of waiting and decided to take some action either helping it
or killing it. I dumped it out of the pot, put it in a little bigger pot with new dirt.
It dropped its two straps and I was convinced it was dead. I then soaked it
thoroughly and gave it some fertilizer. All of these things are supposedly no-nos.
But, I saw new growth starting and it was a blossom stalk and two straps.
It is so slow tho. Probably be in bloom by the 4th of July :-)
I know that it worked for Ann, but mine has been in the same pot since I got
it and it was just a two leaf rooted piece. I don't know how old it was
before it bloomed, but the key seems to be not watering too much, as I
recall.
Debbie w/Clivia trying to survive in rental house...
Leunissen
Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2006 7:50 AM
To: GARDENS@LSV.UKY.EDU
Subject: Clivia was Re: Things in bloom
A friend at work gave me a small clivia a couple of years ago and I keep it
in my south-west office window. I re-potted it last week hoping it might
just need a little more room to bloom. How "big/old" does a clivia need to
be before it blooms?
Mary L. in very "crisp" southern Ontario
*********************************************
Subject: Re: Clivia was Re: Things in bloom
**Probably the reason for the blossum bud is coincidence. I certainly have
waited long
enough. However, I have heard (read about) that sometimes a shock will
force a plant to
bloom because then it hastens to try to propogate itself before it dies.
:-) Whatever...
I am anticipating this lovely bloom.
ann
think@francomm.com
**embedded below
**Thanks for the response. Maybe this plant will survive despite my
ignorance :-) Since the bud is still just a bump and so slowly growing I
have no idea how many blossoms I will have (hopefully) I am challenged!!
ann
think@francomm.com
Hi Ann, mine took about 7 years but the second one took only three. I think
they need regular watering and lots of bright light, although not so direct
as to burn those lovely leaves. Then I let it go dry for a bout 2 months.
example I water from about June to December one good watering a month. Then
stop. Then just about 4 weeks before Easter I soak it in the shower, and
shove it back to the brightest spot I have near the south west window, and
then it is usually in bloom for Easter. This past two years though I ahve
moved it back as the bloom stalk starts as the blooms were opening down in
the leaves. By moving it back away from the light I was hoping to see the
stalk develop further before the flowers opened up. By the time the first
two actual flowers have dried off the stalk comes up in height, then the
rest bloom away. How many blooms are there? I usually get about 27 on one
plant the other 15 or 17...More each year. My pot on my older one has
cracked (now held together with a good wrap around with electrical tape) and
I need to repot......first warm day outside will be the day.
I still have one with a seed pod on it. the other finally did drop and has
put forth a neat little new plant but this one must have been there 5 years
now, it is still a deep pink colour and is getting a bit softer, A big seed
inside the pod.
Marg in N.S. Zone 6b
(now updated)
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/mmillard/index.html
Golly, I'm glad this question came up. I don't exactly know what to
do with Clivia since I've only had one since October of last year. I
won it at a Hosta meeting. The nurseryman who donated the plant said
it would bloom when the roots filled the pot (one gallon size).
Okay. So, I just brought it home, put it into the greenhouse,
watered it regularly, and pressed the "patience" button.
My problem with this plant is this: It seems to be infested with
thrips. Thrips are a new greenhouse problem for me. Now what?
Anyone else have to deal with thrips on this plant? Sprayed it with
horticulture oil over the weekend.
Linda in NW Ohio.
I don't know exactly what I had but a couple years ago I had a mess of small
flies on the orchids. a moss fly or fungas knats or both...it is in my notes
but where they are, be darned if I know. I cleaned up at Christmas time for
company and can't find a blessed thing that I put away safely so as to be
able to find it at a moments notice.They were infesting the whole shelf of
them. Eventually I got some Neem oil and used that. The smell was a problem
but it disappaited quite quickly over all. I wanted to go to something more
deadly but with the cats taste testing everything here abouts, I just
couldn't. I used Neem every watering and then I realized everything in the
house was probably infested so I went aboard everything. I sprayed and
watered with it.
It has a pesticide affect, not harmful to people or pets but it does the job
when the plant absorbs it into its being. I had to watch it was mixed
properly so as not to get a mouldy scum on the surface of the plants and
growing medium and it took about 2 months before I began to see a big
change. There were/are sticky traps everywhere as well as apple cider and
soap traps. I cannot say it will work on thrips but I did use it on my Peace
roses when the thrips hit them in August and as soon as spring gets here I
will be using it again. Seems to even protect from black spot!!
Marg in N.S. Zone 6b
(now updated)
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/mmillard/index.html
Late coming into this thread... One thing I do know about Clivia is that it
likes to be pot-bound, so hope you didn't put it in too big a pot. I have
3 seedlings from the red seed pods that develop after the blooms. My Clivia
bloomed twice in 2004, once in 2005, and I'm hoping that it will treat me to
another show this year.
karen, NJ
Looks like I'm going to be waiting a couple of years for a bloom:-( The new pot was at least twice as large as the old pot. Oh well, it's something to look forward to;-)
Mary L.
karen
Late coming into this thread... One thing I do know about Clivia is that it
likes to be pot-bound, so hope you didn't put it in too big a pot. I have
3 seedlings from the red seed pods that develop after the blooms. My Clivia
bloomed twice in 2004, once in 2005, and I'm hoping that it will treat me to
another show this year.
karen, NJ
No, not much bigger. It seems to do anything very slowly. This, what I
assume to be a blossome stalk, is taking forever (it seems to me) to
develop.
Since it is such a challenge I will hang in there with it just to see what
will happen.
I try to ignore it because that is what it seems to call for. If I ever get
a blossom
I will be thrilled!!
ann
think@francomm.com
