Clivias, clivias and more clivias
The chairman of the Joburg Clivia Club, Glynn Middlewick, gave a talk on clivias at the recent Benoni Horticultural Society meeting.
Middlewick has a passion for clivias and explained the reasons for him being in the club in the form of “the three fs: fantastic flower, fun and new friends”.
Middlewick gave the members and guests a detailed description of how these flowers should be nourished and how to experiment with the pollination process to obtain hybrid colours.
“If you cross an orange with a yellow, you will get an orange clivia, as it is the dominant colour,” he added.
He explained that the clivia likes humid, shaded circumstances, but still needs light.
“We grow our clivias in 80 per cent shade,” he said.
“Keep the temperature at between 20 and 30 degrees Celsius.
“If the temperature is below 10 degrees Celsius, they stop growing.”
Throughout the meeting, he gave out text books on clivias to those who answered questions correctly and, at the end of the meeting, he made clivia seedlings available to members who would like to experiment on their own.
The Benoni Horticultural Society meets once a month and features a new guest speaker at each session.
For more information on the association, contact chairman Stephen Rehbock on 011 849 2657.
