Royal Clivia

[Wim Snoeijer]

This Clivia miniata is now in full flower and, however I am a non-active forum user, I had to share this with you because the plant is, in my view, unbelievable gorgeous. 

The inflorescence at the left is 25 cm across and has just over 30 flowers. Probably because of the number of flowers, the fragrance is remarcable, sweet and nice, but not noticeble from a meter distance anymore. Out of the vegetative shoots are 3 flower stalks and 2 of them have a secondaire flower stalk too.

There is a story to this plant as this offspring I have is from the plant given by King Leopold III of Belgium to Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Hendrik of the Netherlands as a gift for their 25th wedding anniversary on 7 January 1926.
A double treasure for me as my dear friend Jan Fopma managed to get hold of this offspring via the botanical garden in Amsterdam.
I have seen photo’s taken at the museum Palace het Loo in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, of clivia’s on display in the museum which look extremely similar to the plant I have now.

Photo’s were taken today.

[Gail]

What a lovely looking plant Wim, well grown! I've never noticed a fragrance from Clivias (and I think mine are sulking this year about the lack of attention they have received, so I may not get a chance to check them).

[Jacek]

Plant with roots in history. Compost, water, nutrients are secondary.

[Wim Snoeijer]

Thanks for your comments, very kind. I live, what is called, in the "country side" so we have canals around the garden and the neighbours are farmers with cattle and I water all the plants, including the clivia's, with water from the canal. I hardly give manure to my plants because of that but most monocotyledons I give 7-14-28, the clivia's too. I put the plants outside in the shade in June and leave them there till October. When I bring the plants in the unheated greenhouse I repot and when temperatures go further down I move them again to the heated greenhouse. And in March they go back to the unheated greenhouse, so that is about the year cycle of the clivia's.
Today, Tuesday now, the plant is even more orange then last weekend as the flowers on the secondaire stalks are open too.
Best wishes from Holland,
Wim