Whatch our how to grow clivias video
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKOAzdE5L9o
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKOAzdE5L9o
How to grow Clivias
Seeds
Clivias have beautiful flowers, and most of you probably noticed the seeds forming after flowers have faded. These seeds will grow bigger throughout the season and start to color up from late April till August. This is when you know they are ready to be harvested.
After harvesting the seedpods you peel of the red/purple/orange or yellow skin and inside you will get the seeds.. usually 1-36 per berry. These seeds you can rinse off in water with a drop of dish washing liquid to sterilize the germs. Now you get your seed trays or garden bed ready for sowing..make sure the soil is well drained and always in a shady spot as clivias are bush lilies that loves to grow in shade. Do not sow clivia seeds to deep, in fact they just need to be halfway in the soil.. keep them moist until you see the first leaf appear from where you can reduce watering to prevent root or crown rot.. after the first year you can transplant you 2-4 leafed seedlings into bigger pots or the garden. |
Planting the seedlings
Okay now, so you have patiently waited and treated your little seedlings with a lot of TLC the past year.
Transplanting them from community seedling trays or pots are important to promote stronger growth and faster flowering. Be careful not to plant these one year old seedlings too deep as the will cause the crown the rot and you will loose your precious seedlings. when planting them in containers be sure the soil is well drained.. After transplanting the seedlings be sure not to over water them. Remember they have quite thick roots to keep moisture. In summer you can water once or twice a week depending how hot and dry your climate is... in winter clivias are resting and too much water will cause rot once again. These seedlings can started to be fertilized within 3 months of planting and now you can fertilize every 6 to 8 months until flowering size that will be in approximately 3-5 years. |
Dividing
Clivias will start to produce offsets through the walk of time. These clumps can be divided after flowering season that is about from December till early May in South-Africa.
REMEMBER... Clivias always want to be in a shady spot as hot afternoon sun will burn the leaves and your plant will be looking very unappealing. In summer mature plants can be watered more often and in winter they can be left dry and will survive on rainfall. |
TIPS
Clivias like to grow in clumps but over years you will notice the flowering will decrease and your blooms will look paler..
Do not worry, this is just to show you that the plants need some fertilizer (any leaf and root enhancing fertilizer will work perfectly and from February you can start giving flower promoting fertilizers.) If you have empty shady spots you want to fill up this is the perfect opportunity to split up your clumps of clivias and replant them about 1.2 meters apart as these single plants will soon start forming big clumps again with lots of bright new flowers. Roots can be trimmed back to about 2/4 as this will promote new and strong root growth. |
Planting different colors together looks beautiful and do not worry about the colors changing.. They will flower the same color every year.. The seeds you will harvest from them will be different outcomes and can vary from yellow to dark red depending what colors you planted together..
|