The high cost of plants suggests to me that there's still a lot to be done in micropropagation of Clivia. Heaven knows, the t.c. labs crank out orchids like cookies and have done so for 40 years, and consequently very few orchids command such prices. I suppose if the market niche is so limited that no one bothers to do the micropropagation, then the price might stay high as the five enthusiasts fight over the rare plants.
I'm intrigued by the mention of "orangeness" in the red forms. Has anyone tried simply keeping those plants quite cool during flowering? Many years ago I noticed that the color of a dahlia (Crichton Honey) had much more anthos in early summer and in fall, but in mid-summer when temps were really high, the color was almost completely yellow. The biochemical pathways for anthos and carotenoids can have steps with different activation energies so that in cooler temps one may dominate the other. I notice cooler temps produce more purple in the leaves of Eucomis, which often (but not always) fades to green as the weather gets hot.
Bob Zone 7 where the TB iris are finally done blooming (about 2-3 weeks later than normal because of the cold spring)
On Tuesday, May 25, 2021, 02:59:34 AM EDT, Lee Poulsen via pbs <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote:
Clivia breeding has progressed in leaps and bounds since those days. I wanted a yellow-flowering Clivia so badly, and it was the first time in my life I had ever paid a dollar or even two dollars for especially good varieties for a single seed! (Now there are things I’ve paid $5 per seed to get, like Worsleya.) Those were fun days.
Anyway, the yellow seeds all produced yellow flowering plants, and in a climate like California’s, if they get watered regularly in the summer, they just grow like crazy, especially if they are planted in the ground under a tree.
(Speaking of which, yes, now is a fine time to divide Clivia in the northern hemisphere. They are evergreen but their growing season, for all but one of the species, and all of the hybrids, is during the spring and summer months. They’re very tough plants, so divide away.)
In any case, breeding has produced some amazing looking flowers since then, mostly in South Africa (where they are native to) and Japan. For flowers that is. The Chinese have been breeding them for their leaves, and have produced some amazing looking leaves if that is more your thing. (There has also been some good breeding in New Zealand, Australia, and the US. But IMO, for flowers, South Africa and Japan are the places to get the best of the new flower colors. And they grow well from seeds. Plants will get you flowers much more quickly, but be prepared to pay lots of money.) The main species used is Clivia miniata. But there are also interspecific hybrids with more unusual coloration.
There are now true green flowers, pink flowers, peach or apricot colored flowers (one of my favorite colors), near white, deep maroon red (called bronze), picotee (cream center with an orange edge), ones with a different color on the reverse side of the petal, maybe they’ve gotten a true red but usually there is still some orange-ness in them. There’s something called pastel (but I’m not a big fan of that color because it looks like the color is too pale or washed out). Multi-petal flowers. And then there are some really unusual markings and mixed coloration like those bred from a variety called ‘777’ for example, or those bred from Apple Blossom. But for the most unusual or when there is a new mutation, be prepared to pay $10 per seed or even more. (Plants can cost in the thousands of dollars for the most desirable varieties.) If you want to see what these, and many others, look like check out photos on any of the big Clivia Facebook groups.
--Lee Poulsen
Pasadena, California, USA - USDA Zone 10a
Latitude 34°N, Altitude 1150 ft/350 m
> On May 24, 2021, at 8:13 AM, James Waddick via pbs <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote:
>
> Just to add my 2 cents and some random commentary:
>
> The history of yellow Clivia and indeed active Clivia hybridizing goes back to Sir Peter Smithers in recent history who first made distributions of his ‘Vico Yellow’ including to Y. Nakamura in Japan. Both China and Japan have had years of interest in Clivia since the deposing of the last Emperor of China (There’s a whole other story there).
>
> Nakamura carried these breeding efforts even further and renewed world wide interest in the entire genus. The first International Clivia meetings in Huntington Gardens in Pasadena further ignited interest. I attended those meetings along with Lee Poulsen (anything to add, Lee ?) and a few other PBS members who have passed. Those meetings were organized by Harold Koopwitz who produced an excellent book devoted to the genus.
>
> Now one of the major breeding programs is that of the long standing work of Longwood Gardens in PA. See https://longwoodgardens.org/gardens/… <https://longwoodgardens.org/gardens/…> and be sure to click on links at the bottom of the page for some amazing pictures.
>
> Modern Clivia hybrids come in an unimagined range of colors, sizes, forms, foliage just 20 years ago.
>
> Best Jim W
>
>
_______________________________________________
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>