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 > On May 24, 2021, at 9:22 AM, Mark Mazer via pbs <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote: > > "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> _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>