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Some background on the Clivia plant
The clivia plant is a native South African plant often called the bush lily. It has bright orange flowers, occasionally yellow and, rarely, a creamy, yellow, white colored flower. They can tolerate dry conditions and grow well in dappled shade. Their popularity is their tolerance, and their usefulness in bringing color into hard to plant areas of the garden. You can find the standard orange flowered clivia plant for sale in garden nurseries, but if you are after the rarer colors you will need to track down a clivia specialist nursery. Clivia seeds are available online, and at seed exchanges, but the interesting varieties are available from South African suppliers, and there are no import problems with these, either as seeds or plants.
Growing clivias from seed
Clivia seeds can be harvested from the plant, once the flower has dropped off and the ovary has formed a berry. When the berry changes in color from green to either, yellow or orange, the berries can be removed and the seeds can be taken out, allowed to dry, and then sown on top of a mix of 50% soil and 50% compost. Then you press the seeds gently into the soil using the palm of the hand, making sure they are still visible. They need to be kept in a warm, humid place and watered twice a week. Germination takes about 2 - 3 weeks and the seedlings will form leaves about 10cm long after 6 months. At this stage, you can prick them out and plant them into separate pots. It will take three to four years before a clivia will flower from germination; clivia seeds propagation is an easy process, but it takes a long time to see the rewards.
Varieties of clivia
The reason that clivia are so popular is that there is a huge variety of clivia, with enthusiasts all over the world. In China, they have cultivated variegated clivia, with red flowers, available for extraordinary sums of money because they are sold at auctions. The long period of time between germination and flowering results in high prices paid for mature plants. You can find clivia plants with a range of leaves, broad, flat, spiky and even miniature clivia with veined leaves. There is a whole world of clivia varieties out there, and clivia seeds for sale can range from a reasonable 5 seeds for around $7.00, to rare seeds at auction for over $300.
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Author Bio Box: Patricia Wainwright
Get all the facts about seeds and gardening information at GreenThumbArticles.com!
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