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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Clivia miniata

I received this rather large plant in a big clay pot last fall as a hand-me-down. He didn’t know what it was — never bloomed, he said — I thought it was an Amaryllis, and have been caring for it accordingly although he was correct and it did NOT bloom for Christmas or even later in the winter. :|

So, imagine my delight when I saw flowerstalk and flowerbuds on it last week! ...And, today, having caught a splash of brilliant orange among the large container “tropicals”, I hurried around to the other side of the big coffee tree/shrub and the all-over-the-place containers of figs, and found this :D — to my astonishment, It is a Clivia miniata with significant amount of yellow in the blossom.

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applestar
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Back in the ‘80’s when I started dabbling in amateur hobby of horticulture and houseplants, yellow flowered Clivia aurea was all the rage ...and cost a small fortune. I remember noting it in one of my favorite mail order catalogs... year after year. Even the regular orange-flowered Clivia miniata were not cheap, though more common, and any tweaked blossom colors merited extra consideration$.

Since then, I have played with growing amaryllis and other forcing bulbs over the holidays and winter months, and ...you know, “been there, done that”... have come to regard them as prime winter growing real estate-hogs and stingy with the reward for all the effort, due to their short blooming period. (IMHO - Moth orchids are much more rewarding and easy care.)

Then -oh- maybe 10 ~ 15 years ago, I noticed a new, much more affordable yellow-flowered Clivia on the market, and I wondered if they succeeded in meristem culture or other mass production methods. But it evoked no more than a back-burner curiosity and a passing interest since I was starting to need all the room I could find for other overwintering plants that produced edibles. ;)

However, discovering that a Clivia miniata has sort of fallen into my hands is taking me back to the time when I was always reading and researching INTERESTING houseplants. I already pulled out my go-to book on flowering houseplants — VERY good section on Clivia care. :)

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applestar
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Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

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