YELLOW CLIVIA
The small plant nursery on top of my microwave oven has a new resident. The yellow clivia that I have coveted for years finally arrived last week. As befits its horticultural importance and stature as an object of desire, I have potted it up in a four-inch terra cotta pot made by a now-defunct English pottery maker. I found the pot on a dusty bottom shelf of an even dustier antique and what-not shop. The pot, which bears the maker’s name, does not qualify for antique status, but it does lend a certain amount of extra cache to the already cache-laden yellow clivia. I don’t tell people that I got the pot for almost nothing. There are some things that casual visitors just don’t need to know.
First of all, if you are going to associate with this kind of high end plant, you have to get the name right. It’s pronounced “kl-eye-vee-ya” in honor of an Englishwoman, Lady Charlotte Florentia Clive, wife of an early nineteenth century Duke of Northumberland. Clivia is native to South Africa, but the first plants to bloom in England did so in 1827 in a greenhouse at Syon House, residence of the Duke and Duchess. The plants had been discovered in South Africa only a few years earlier.
The Clive’s clivia was a specimen of Clivia miniata, and it had orange flowers. The much rarer yellow-flowered form of C. miniata was not discovered until 1888, in the Natal region of South Africa. Like the original orange-flowered clivia, the yellow-flowered form became a “must have” for wealthy plant collectors. Clivia caught on during the Victorian period, becoming a fixture in conservatories and greenhouses. In the second half of the twentieth century breeders in the U.S., Asia and elsewhere concentrated on enlarging the number of forms and colors. It is relatively easy to produce hybrids, which also encourages amateurs to work with the plants.
Clivia are related to amaryllis, and you can see that relationship in the long, strappy leaves that are typical of both genera. Both have tall stalks, with clivia growing between eighteen to twenty-four inches tall. Instead of the single large trumpet-shaped flowers that appear on amaryllis, clivia have large, somewhat rounded flowerheads composed of groups of multiple smaller trumpets. Clivia miniata has become the most popular clivia because it is the only one of the five clivia species with upward-facing flowers. Orange is the dominant flower color, but breeders have developed yellow and peach strains as well as varieties with variegated leaves. Like amaryllis, clivia is a tender plant, and must be brought inside in areas where winter temperatures fall below freezing.
Yellow clivias are my favorite and I have wanted one for the longest time. Twenty years ago, they were only available at rare plant auctions. Then, fifteen years ago, a well-known catalog vendor offered a yellow-flowered specimen, Sir John Thouron, for nearly one thousand dollars. At the time I could only gaze longingly at the catalog pictures and fantasize. Today, that same catalog sells a similar cultivar, Golden Dragon, for a mere seventy-five. Another nursery sells a smaller specimen for fifty, or a very small Golden Dragon in a two and a half inch pot for just twenty. Even though the twenty dollar plant is a few years from blooming size, I couldn’t resist. The foliage is attractive even now and the long wait will make me especially grateful when the flowers finally do appear.
You would think a plant that was a rarity so recently would be fussy, but that isn’t the case. The yellow-flowered form, like its more common orange relatives, is reasonably undemanding. My clivia will eventually go in a south-facing window, but that is only because indoor light is much less bright than outdoor light. Any clivia that spends its summers outdoors should be placed in the shade, which is how it grows in South Africa.
Those of us who are lazy about repotting things will appreciate the fact that clivia like to be pot-bound, and will flower better and sooner under those cozy conditions. In a month or two my yellow clivia will graduate to a slightly larger pot. I will water it only when the top of the soil is dry and feed it periodically. When it finally flowers, it should do so in late winter or early spring.
There are numerous yellow hybrids and cultivars, but they can be hard to find in the marketplace. For an excellent overall selection, go to Shields Gardens, Ltd., www.shieldsgardens.com. There is no paper catalog, but you can place orders over the telephone. Find a blooming-size, Salamone hybrid plant at Wayside Gardens,| 1 Garden Lane,| Hodges, SC 29695, (800) 213-0379, www.waysidegardens.com. Free catalog. Golden Dragon is available in two sizes from Logee’s Greenhouses, Ltd., 141 North Street, Danielson, CT 06239, (888) 330-8038, www.logees.com. Free catalog