"This Clivia has a long history which I think one can find on the web." 'Adventures of a Gardener' by Peter Smithers, pages 146-7 Mark Mazer Hertford, NC On Mon, May 24, 2021 at 9:55 AM Arnold Trachtenberg via pbs < pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote: > Robert: > Years ago ,members of the IBS received plantlets from a Japanese grower. > > Steven Vinsky handled the distribution here in the US. > > See below: > > Clivia 'Vico Yellow' (Smithers Yellow Clivia) - An evergreen bulb-like > perennial that forms clumps 2 feet tall and wide with narrow long dark > green blunt-tipped leaves. Typically orange flowering, this cultivar has > full heads of flowers with large wavy rounded soft yellow petals and a > deeper yellow throat. As with the species this plant typically commencing > to flower in mid to late winter and continues through early spring. After > flowering, plants can produce showy fruit which, like the flowers, are > yellow. This very tough evergreen plant is best suited to dry shaded > locations in fairly frost-free gardens but it will tolerate situations with > regular irrigation as well as winter temperatures into the low 20s F. In > colder climates plants can be brought in during the winter. For more > information on the history of yellow clivia, see our listing for Clivia > miniata 'San Marcos Yellow'. Yellow clivia plants collected in the wild > from Eshowe Forest in South Africa were noted by Lewis Palmer, the > Treasurer of the Royal Horticultural Society, to be growing at the home of > Sir Charles Saunders, then the administrator of Zululand, in 1925. Sir > Saunders gave Palmer two plants, which he returned to England with. Both > plants flowered and produced seed but shortly thereafer they both perished > for unknown reasons. The one plant in a glasshouse at the Royal Botanic > Gardens Kew plant was growing with typical orange flowering Clivia minata > and when its seedlings flowered, they all had orange flowers. Kew hybridist > Charles Raffill (1876-1951) backcrossed these orange flowering plants and > selected several, incling one pale yellow flowering plant he named C. x > kewensis 'Cream'. Others from this backcross were of varying shades of > oranges. In 1970 Sir Peter Smithers (1913-2006), a Tory politician and > hobiest gardener then living in Vico Morcote in southeastern Switzerland, > obtained a single plant of C. x kewensis 'Cream' and one plant each of two > of the orange flowering sister seedlings, labeled as C. x kewensis 'A' and > 'B'. The following year he crossed these plants using the pollen from > 'Cream' to pollinate both the 'A' and the 'B'. This resulted in more seed > than Smithers had space for, so he discarded some under the greenhouse > benches. The seed set in trays all bloomed orange four years later but the > discarded seed under the bench produced two plants that flowered yellow a > couple years later. The better of the two grew well and this plant he later > named 'Vico Yellow' for the location of his garden. Sir Smithers sent > plants of this variety to Dr. Shuichi Hirao and from him it came into the > posession of the renowned clivia breeder Yoshokazu Nakamura at the Clivia > Breeding Plantation. In 1997 we were informed by Sir Peter Smithers that > Yoshokazu Nakamura had notified him that it was his opinion that 'Vico > Yellow' was "the world's best yellow Clivia, the one to beat" and that > Miyoshi & Company in Yamanashi Japan had succesfully micropropagated the > plant - this was very big news as up to this time not one lab had been > succesfull in microproagating a single clivia. Stephen Vinisky of Cherry > Creek Daffodils Nursery in Sherwood, Oregon arranged to receive the first > shipments of the flasked micopropagated (tissue cultured) plants of this > Clivia from Miyoshi in May 1998 and we received 5 plants in a flask from > him. Of the 5 plants we received only one remained vigorous and from this > one plant we have built up a crop by dividing every 3 to 4 years. In 2020, > we felt we had enough stock to begin selling it this historic yellow > clivia. Since 1993 we have also grown our introduced 'San Marcos Yellow', a > large flowered selected form we released in 2005 called Clivia miniata > 'Arturo's Yellow' as well as Dave Conway's for 'Lemon Chiffon' that served > as our original seed parent for the 'San Marcos Yellow' plants. The > information provided on this page is based on the research that we have > conducted about this plant in our nursery library, from what we have found > about it on reliable online sources, as well as from observations in our > nursery of crops and plants growing in the nursery's garden and those in > other gardens. We will also incorporate comments received from others and > welcome getting feedback from those with additional information, > particularly if it includes cultural tips that would aid others in growing > Clivia miniata 'Vico Yellow'. > Arnold > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Robert Lauf via pbs <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> > To: Arnold Trachtenberg via pbs <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> > Cc: Robert Lauf <boblauf@att.net> > Sent: Mon, May 24, 2021 9:50 am > Subject: Re: [pbs] Clivia 'Vico Yellow' > > That's a nice plant. I'm intrigued by the reference to a tissue culture > project. I read somewhere that the reason the yellows are so darn > expensive is that no one has developed a productive t.c. method for > clivias, seedlings take 7 years to bloom, and if the parent is yellow, only > half the seedlings will be yellow. That's a long time to wait for > something that is a coin toss to begin with. > Have they finally figured out how to clone these in quantity? > Bob Zone 7 > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… > Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… > Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> > _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>