Clivia

Day 131: Who needs Amaryllis when you can have Clivia instead? Okay, the plant has to be at least seven years old before it will flower (and this one was closer to 12), but it holds its foliage all year long and you don't have to fuss with providing any special care for the bulb. Clivias can be set outdoors in the summer, but they are also entirely comfortable with life on a shelf indoors as long as they're in a cool room during the winter. They prefer partial shade if outdoors, a north or west window if they're to be raised as houseplants as mine is. They are available in a variety of colours in the white/yellow/orange range, with some being more expensive than others. And they're not cheap these days! Fortunately, I got mine before they became something of a fad. This plant has been in bloom for over a month now, brightening the Loom Room when I look up from my weaving. It still has a couple of buds hiding beneath the open ones.

Clivia In Full Glory

Day 245: Some things deserve a second mention. It has now been 12 days since the Clivia's first flower opened. That initial blossom has dropped, but five more have replaced it and there are three still in bud. Although Clivia belongs to the same family as Amaryllis and resembles that popular winter-blooming plant in both foliage and flower, its habits are dissimilar. Clivia does not have a fully dormant period like Amaryllis, and holds onto its leaves year-'round. It grows from roots rather than from a bulb, and prefers lower light than its cousin. However, it does require a rest period during which time it needs cool nighttime temperatures and less frequent watering. The normal flowering period for Clivia is in March or April, according to everything I've read, so perhaps mine still needs to adjust its schedule. After all, it took twenty years of sitting in the shaded west window of my bedroom before this beauty decided to put on a show.

A Twenty-Year Wait

Day 233: Twenty years. Twenty years, or maybe even more. That's how long I have been waiting for this to happen. My Clivia is finally blooming! I had just watered it a few days ago and didn't notice buds, but neither was I looking for them. I mean, the Clivia has been nothing but strappy, amaryllis-like leaves for as long as I've had it. Why would I bother to look for buds? A friend had one which bloomed regularly in her north window with very little care, so I figured it would be easy to bring one into flower. Ah, how wrong that assumption was! When mine got too big for its pot, I divided it and tried planting one of the pieces outdoors, a system the experts assured me would result in flowering once I brought it inside for the winter. The experiment failed miserably and that offshoot ("pup") died, but I had kept the second piece in a smaller pot and it was still doing well. Or rather, it was producing healthy leaves but nothing else, and so it continued for at least ten years beyond the division. I resigned myself to thinking of it as a foliage plant. My enforced patience has at long last been rewarded. My Clivia is blooming!