Gardener for Clivias

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Can you imagine what the Chinese, Japanese or American Clivia enthusiasts would give just to be able to say, “These six species of Clivia belong to us, because they are indigenous to our country”? That is not to be, because the honours belong to South Africa and the Kingdom of Swaziland. Growing Clivias, either in pots or in the full shade of your flowerbeds, is quite easy and very rewarding.

Let’s start with the seeds. Harvesting ripe seeds After CLIVIA miniata has flowered in September, the peduncle must be left on the plant for the next eight months for the seeds to ripen and mature. During those eight months, the fruit may turn a kaleidoscope of colours, or even stay green right till harvest time.

Harvesting should take place in May of the following year, at which time the fruit should feel like a ripe peach. If the seeds are still very hard and stay stuck to the peduncle, then leave them on the plant for another month or two. Serious growers of Clivias have found that seeds of some species that are only four months old will germinate although they may be a bit slower than their ripe and mature counterparts.

However, the seeds of the five pendulous species: C. nobilis, C. caulescens, C. gardenii, C. mirabilis and C. robusta, as well as hybridised seed (crosses) between them and C. miniata, must mature fully before harvesting. Leaving fruits on the peduncle for too long may mean the seeds germinate inside the fruit. Cleaning the seeds Remove the outer yellow or red skin carefully with a sharp knife, then remove the endocarp – the membrane that separates the seeds.

The embryo (‘eye’) of the seed always points away from where the flower was. If the seed has already germinated inside the fruit and the root or the leaf is broken then throw it away, because it will not grow. The membranes of the very dark orange or red clivias are particularly difficult to remove from the seeds. Dissolve one teaspoon of Sunlight Liquid™ (the orange one, which kills bacteria) in one litre of lukewarm water and use this to wash the seeds thoroughly, taking special care with those seeds that already have their growing points.

Alternatives to the dishwashing liquid include Sporekill™ (2 ml dissolved in 10 litres of water) and Jeyes Fluid™ (5 ml in 5 litres of water). Next, rinse the seeds with clean water and dry them with paper or a cloth. Inspect each seed, making quite sure that no traces of membrane remain. Leaving any membrane on the seeds makes contamination by bacteria and fungi more likely, and this is seldom treatable.

Most cleaned clivia seeds have a shiny look. Clean seeds may be vacuum-sealed in plastic bags and stored at 5 °C for a maximum of 360 days. Germinating seeds Put all seeds in clean, fresh tap water for 48 hours before planting them as this encourages germination. In the USA some growers even keep them in the water until the roots of the seedlings are 2 to 3 cm long and they are ready to be planted in a seedling tray.

Many growers believe you must never bring clivia seeds into contact with vermiculite. Rudo Lötter (founder of the Clivia Enthusiasts Group) and I agree that there is no better germinating medium. In South Africa, the clivia-race normally starts during the cold winter months, from May through to August. Whether you keep your seeds on wetted paper towels in ice cream containers on the fridge or on a sunny windowsill, the cold nights are bound to take their toll.

 Under these circumstances you may find that after 60 days your seedlings are not yet ready for planting in seedling trays. To be safe, treat expensive or precious seeds to a tray of vermiculite and an electrical plant propagator, featuring a 13 watt heated base. The seeds are then so cosy that they know nothing about our windswept and frosty winters.

While pushing each seed halfway down into the tray of vermiculite, check that the ‘eye’ of the seed is facing the bottom of the tray. Wet the tray thoroughly with a sprinkle bottle, until the water runs out of the tray. Then mix 25 grams of Efekto Virikop™ powder in 5 litres of water and wet the tray again until it runs out of the tray. This will kill spores and bacteria.

Check your propagator every second day; any seedlings that are pushing up ‘in the air’ are ready for replanting. Seedlings with a nice straight root of 20 or 30 mm are ideal for planting in 100 mm seedling trays, even though their leaves may have barely developed. Waiting too long to plant the young seedlings into proper seedling mix may give you two types of problem.

 Firstly, the roots can grow so long and skew that you struggle to plant them out into the seedling tray and this retards their future progress. Secondly, if you leave them in the vermiculite for too long, it will kill the roots. This is why many growers hate vermiculite. Ordinary, garden-collected Clivia seeds can be planted directly in the garden. Prepare a nice shady patch of flowerbed with compost and Moo-Poo™ (or well-rotted kraal manure), then lay your seeds, shoulder to shoulder, in small furrows, about 5 cm apart and 20 mm deep.

Cover the seed with soil, press it down lightly and keep the soil moist, but not wet. Keep the dogs off the patch and you will be pleasantly surprised after 60 to 90 days. Planting seedlings I use the same mix for seedlings and potting up mature plants. This is how to make it: Measure one part each of: good sifted garden soil, potting soil, compost, peat moss (or acid compost), chipped bark (20 cm) and silica nursery river sand. Add to that half a measure each of bone meal, Bounce back (chicken manure) and Moo-Poo™. Mix everything together thoroughly.

To fill your seedling trays with a nice soft mix, use a sieve with 3 mm holes to sift this mix. Caution! You cannot plant seedlings grown from Chinese seeds directly in this very ‘rich’ mix. All their initial roots will die off and they will struggle for months to re-grow. For them you need to put a golf ball size of clean silica sand in the mix for each one, and then plant them in the sand so that they can ‘find their feet’ in the next two months before their root tips reach the organic matter.

To make planting holes in the mix use a planting stick about the thickness of a pencil, with a sharpened tip. Plant the seedlings upright, with half of the seed in the seedling mix and the other half above the mix. Press lightly down.

After planting the seedlings in the seedling tray, cover the entire tray with 10 mm silica nursery river sand. This is done for four reasons: • The sand pushes the seeds down, forcing the roots to grow down into the mix. • The sand stops the seedlings from being washed out of the mix by the water from the spray bottle. • It keeps the Olive Thrushes out of the tray (Clivia roots resemble fat worms and these birds are forever scratching for earthworms). • It makes a seedling tray look professional (and when you smooth the sand away after 60 days you stand a chance to win the honours at the ‘Tray of Seedlings’ Section at your local clivia show).

It is likely that seedlings that have predominantly green stems (with very little or no pigment) will bear yellow, peach or very light pastel blooms. The exception to this is C. caulescens, which always has green stems. While admiring your handiwork remember that it will take the best part of 36 to 48 months before you have the privilege of seeing the little plants’ faces.

Only people of certain mettle can be this patient! in memory of a son Carrie Krüger, of Utopia Nursery in Sedgefield, recently launched a project to promote an interest in clivias amongst young people. Named Jason’s Garden of Remembrance, in memory of her late son, Jason, her aim is that the garden will supply free clivia seeds to scholars and students of clivia clubs across the world.

Several varieties of clivia plants have been donated by clivia lovers worldwide and it is the seeds from these plants that will be harvested and shared annually. It is hoped that this project will encourage young people to grow their own clivia plants and become active members of clivia clubs. 

Dividing clivias

Clivias in flowerbeds should only be divided if you want new plants for other shady areas in your garden, because they can never be too congested. As long as you feed them (purely on top of the soil) with compost, moo poo, ashes from your braai and 3:1:5 fertiliser (60 grams per square metre) they will show you that the thicker they are planted the better impression they make, all year round. If the roots show on top of the growing mix in pots, the plants are telling you that they can do with a slightly bigger pot and new growing mix.

Remove all of the old growing mix and unravel the roots completely so that you can clean them with your water hose. This is necessary so that you can see the rhizome clearly running from the mother plant to each sucker you may want to remove. To do this with plants from your flowerbeds is virtually impossible because of the density of roots, soil and suckers.

Instead, use a big knife to cut through soil, stems and roots, in order that every sucker will have as many of its own roots as possible. It is always best to leave suckers on the mother plant until they have flowered and then remove them, after which they will flower every season. Suckers removed when they are too small (usually because the owner is not patient enough to wait) tend to take very long to produce their first flower.

Cuts in the rhizome to remove the sucker must be made with a clean sharp knife and must be kept as small as possible. Any wounds should be sealed with sulphur powder to prevent infection. If, for any reason, one finds it necessary to re-pot a clivia in the same pot then its roots must not be cut ‘in half’ so that it can fit back into the same pot – a plant with a cut off root cannot grow! Root tips feed the plant and if you remove them the whole root dies and puts the plant under much stress.

If you must reduce some of the very long roots then rather break them off at the stem. When re-planting the mother plant and suckers, I suggest using reeds to stabilise them in the pots, along with placing two or three medium sized stones on top of the growing mix. General upkeep In South Africa, during May through July the plants must rest and your bi-weekly watering must be to remove the dust from their leaves rather than to water the plants.

Brown tips on the oldest leaves may be because of too much or too little water or too little oxygen reaching the roots, but it can also be ‘brown leaf dieback’ or simply old age. These brown tips will be more noticeable on your potted plants and can be cut off if you prefer. Use the tip of a healthy leaf, overlaid on the damaged leaf, as a ‘pattern’ and cut off the damaged parts with a pair of sharp and clean scissors. (Be sure to avoid damaging the healthy leaf in the process.)

Treat the cut edges with sulphur powder, applied with an ear bud,to stop the ‘bleeding’. The wound will dry and the plant will be left with a nice clean edge. Be sure to sterilize the scissors in a solution of Jeyes Fluid? before you cut the next plant’s leaves so that you do not transfer viruses from one plant to another. (There are no cures for viruses!)

Optimal growing conditions This is where the people in China, Japan, America and Europe beat us at our own game. Even in New Zealand and Australia some growers are starting to make us ‘eat our words’. Here in South Africa we tend to put the potted plants in the shade of a white stinkwood tree and say “may you go well my friend – see you in September!” The overseas grower puts his plants in a greenhouse or glasshouse and, right from the start, he or she controls everything that goes through that door.

The most important things they control in these hot houses are: temperature, humidity, pests, feeding, light and air. In certain provinces of China the temperature can drop to way below zero (reaching -40°C), but inside the glasshouse the temperature is controlled and the clivias remain unaffected. Although clivias are quite hardy and withstand cold very well, serious frost may damage them if you are not careful.

The clivias that grow on the windswept mountains of Mpumalanga at Wood Bush State Forest, Wonder View, Pinnacle, God’s Window, Mariepskop and Bearded Man as well as the Drakensberg range in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape prefer temperatures of between 10°C and 30°C. Some Durban growers find that if they do not send their plants to Pietermaritzburg to experience three cold winter months then they do not flower as well as may be expected.

With respect to light, filtered sunlight through 80% black shade netting is preferred. One must, however, make sure that the plants are not in shadow that is too dark, such as that which occurs next to walls or trees. Clivias kept in such places tend not to flower freely and when they produce flowers they are usually mediocre with very skew peduncles.

 Enough light and air circulation ensures brighter and deeper coloured flowers. Professor Johan Spies, of the University of the Free State and Chairman of the Clivia Society, is training seven students in the intricacies of researching the six species of clivia. One of the many exciting things they will be trying to pin down is how to determine the colour of a flower at seedling stage – which will mean fewer ‘casualties’ in our search for the ultimate colour of blue.

Written By Sakkie Nel

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