Growing Clivia in Cold Climates

This is aimed at Clivia lovers in colder climates. While these plants can be grown outdoors in the ground as landscape perennials in parts of Florida and California, residents of most of the rest of the USA have to treat them as container plants.

Pollinating

We normally propagate Clivia from seed, since the plants often are slow to produce offsets or pups. Many Clivia varieties are self-fertile, and you can produce seed by daubing pollen on the stigmas of the open blooms on the same plant. In most cases, your yield of seeds will be greater if you cross-pollinate two different plants.

What is a "stigma"? It is the filament growing up from the heart of the flower among the stamens. Each stamen carries one anther, the little knob of yellow pollen, at its tip. There are 6 stamens in the usual flower. The stigma does not have an anther at its tip. To pollinate the flower, touch an anther with plenty of pollen to the tip of the stigma.

Harvesting the Seeds

A successfully pollinated flower will hold the green or yellow-green ovary even after the petals have fallen off. The fertilized ovary will develop into the seed pod. It takes a Clivia seed pod from 9 months to 13 months to ripen. When it is ripe, it should be somewhat soft to the touch, and you should be able to feel the large, rounded seeds inside. One seed pod will contain from one to perhaps 10 seeds.

When the seed pod is ripe, remove it from the stem with a quick snap. The skin of the pod should be soft to the touch. Remove it and clean the pulp from the seeds. Each seed will be covered by a thin transparent membrane which should also be removed. Try not to damage the seed itself in doing this.

Planting the Seeds

The seeds are planted on the surface of the potting mix. They can be pressed lightly into the mix, to ensure good contact with the moisture. We use a soilless mix, based on one of the commercial peat mixes and sand. A good mixture in our experience is two parts by volume of the peat mix and one part by volume of the sand. Use a clean, coarse river sand. Avoid salt water beach sand. Mix the components thoroughly, then fill your pot or tray and firm the mix lightly with your fingers. Press the seed part way into the surface.

We prefer to water from below until the seed has germinated and has become well-anchored in the mix by its new roots. After that, you can water from above. Keep the mix slightly damp at the surface until the first green shoot appears. Later, allow the surface to become dry between waterings; and then water thoroughly, until water starts to trickle out the drainage hole in the bottom.

Grow the seedlings under fluorescent lights or in bright indirect light. Avoid letting the sun shine directly on the small plants. We like to feed regularly with a dilute solution of a soluble, balanced fertilizer, such as a 20-20-20 or a 20-10-20 formulation. If you feed at every watering or every second watering, avoid excess salts build up by using the soluble fertilizer at no more than 1/4 the recommended label strength.

We like to plant one seed per 5-inch (12.5-cm) square plastic pot, up to 3 seeds in a 6-inch (15-cm) round pot, or up to 8 seeds in a 10-inch (25-cm) round plastic bulb pan (about 5 inches deep). If planted 3 or more seeds to one pot, we like to transplant the seedlings at 1 year into individual containers.

These suggestions are based on growing Clivia in a climate with cold winters, like ours here in Indiana. If your climate is signifcantly milder in winter than ours, there are several ways you might vary from this method. Please consult someone experienced in growing Clivia in your climate if you decide to change some steps.

We hope you enjoy raising clivia from seed.