Bush Lily

Bush Lily

Clivia miniata

(KLY-vee-uh)

Clivia cultivation is easy but I must admit the time from when they go into the greenhouse in the fall until they bloom in the spring can be a little agonizing. Like most years I didn’t water these plants at all. As a gardener I find it hard to withhold water from any plant for that long. It just doesn’t seem prudent. This plant may have received a tiny bit of overspray from the watering of other plants around it but it hardly amounted to anything over the period of the months. The way I get through doing a gardening task like this is to say to myself that I am trying to recreate the conditions the plant sees in nature and we all know nature can be weird!

After we started to water them again we were soon rewarded with the brilliant orange unbels of orange flowers. It is quite a striking color and very showy. There are also yellow and primrose types available but they can be harder to find.

Clivia Lily

Clivia Lily

Clivia miniata cv.

(KLY-vee-uh) (min-ee-AH-tuh)

Synonyms: St. John's Lily, Fire Lily

Since there are quite a few Clivias at work I thought boning up on their culture was a good idea. In the past we have had good luck with Clivia but some specimens have proven to be very stubborn about blooming. Breaking it down to a few simple rules of cultivation can be helpful. They like bright light but never direct sun. Potting mix is also important with a good coarse Orchid Bark working well. Watering is also a major factor. Clivias do not like excessive moisture and can be literally watered to death. Keeping them mostly dry during the winter is important. My personal experience leans towards letting the plants get really root bound in their pots and to avoid dividing when possible. They flowers on the plants at work are white and I hope to see them next cycle.

Work is progressing on the clean up on the island. Thankfully there were some temporary traffic signals installed on the main road. The gas lines there were incredible. I have to go to Manhattan today and assess the damage to the gardens down there. After being flooded by seven feet of saltwater the prognosis is not good but I still have to try and look at what can be saved.

Here is today’s bonus snapshot:

This was quite a strange looking Pansy. The face was amazing to me. Our garden mums and Pansies did well through the storm.

Bush Lily

Bush Lily
Clivia miniata
(KLY-vee-uh)

This Clivia was blooming at Wave Hill. There is one of these at the Conservatory at work also. Only the yellow one at work doesn’t look like it is going to bloom this year. Last year was the first year it had ever bloomed and I had hoped that would be the start of having it bloom every year. The orange Clivia at work has some buds on it. I remember I divided it one time and it took about ten years for it to start to flower again. For the yellow one I am going to try and keep it cool and dry for the autumn and see what happens.

Clivias are native to South Africa and are members of the Amaryllis (Amaryllidaceae) family. They like shade and can withstand high temperatures but not blazing sun. It is a plant than can survive quite a bit of neglect. We take ours outside for the summer but have to put them inside during the winter. They can survive temperatures as low as 36 degrees F.


“Plan your year in the spring, your day at dawn.”
Chinese Proverb

Yellow Bush Daisy

Yellow Bush Daisy
Euryops
(yoor-RY-ops)

I have a confession to make. I sometimes grow plants that I not sure of the name or cultural requirements for. This is one of them. It is a tender perennial that a local nursery grows and we often use them in containers. I am not sure of the species or cultivar name but have a feeling that it maybe E. pectinatus 'Sonnenschoens'. A constant season long bloomer this flower actually over wintered in the greenhouse and since I have looked it up I now have a little more information.

I grow this plant in full sun and give it regular watering. Dead heading the spent flowers seems to help with keeping the flowers coming. It never gets too big but can turn into a 4 to 6 foot shrub when grown in the ground. Despite not knowing exactly what it was this plant has been a trouble free good performer. We could all use more plants like that.


This is a primrose colored Clivia plant that finally decided to bloom. It has been around several years and just started flowering this year. I must say that I love the color. It came without a tag but probably is a form of Clivia miniata, since that is the most popular type in cultivation. Clivias are easy to grow but are frost tender. I keep them outside during the garden season. It is nice that they give a blast of color in the late winter and early spring season.