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Old 25-01-2005, 10:18 PM
sue and dave
 
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Maddy,

While I've been a lady of leisure today, I've been thinking about your
non-blooming Clivia, and wondering if the venerable Grand Dame holds her
scapes too close to her vest.

I did miss a bloom season from my oldest Clivia a few years ago because the
scapes didn't ever get enough length of stalk to rise above the neck of the
plant. Remiss on my part in culture, so I thought, root bound is one thing
but roots still need SOME medium!!

after that fiasco I did repot in a rather brutal matter.....

I didn't want A BIGGER POT, I just wanted some depth of potting mix under
the roots. So I knocked the monster (I count 8 necks now) out of her 18
qt "barrel" , used the biggest sharpest knife in the kitchen and sliced
about 3" off the bottom of the root ball. It was ALL ROOT, not a speck of
planting medium at all.

I replaced that volume with new potting mix in the bottom of the pot and
replanted so that I had the necks at the same level as before. She quickly
threw up leaf growth and bloomed again 8 months later. I suspect I ought to
investigate that rootball again ( Sooner than later!).


On another note, since daylight is extending noticably now and the sun is
really warming my south facing window sills, I dragged my dormant Amaryllis
pots ( 4 of them), and my dormant Jacobean Lily ( 1 LARGE pot) out of their
chilly dormancy prisons and watered them up for another chance.

One needs ALL available hopes in the depths of winter !


Sue
Western Maine


"madgardener" wrote in message
...
I will answer you as it deserves when I get home from work tomorrow. I
promise. ((hug))
maddie
"sue and dave" wrote in message
...
Maddy you are wicked ( lucky, that is) to find those sticky-pots!

I know as sure as I know my own heartbeat a Clivia with a bloom scape

would
be a stick-to-fingers-pot and immediate new house-mate, in spite of the
fact that I have several taking up space already.

I'm floored that you have a 15+ year old clivia which has never bloomed.

I
realize that it has some sentimental value for you. Beyond that value,

I
dunno why you haven't sent it to the compost pile.

My clivia live in the darkest, coolest spots in the house and I don't

even
BOTHER to water them between Columbus Day and Jan 15. Outer Mongolia
conditions with cold, and dark as the inside of your hat, the soil in

those
pots actually shrinks away from the pot sides.

Long 'bout the middle of January, when I see midafternoon sunrays

flirting
around formerly dark windowsills, I do give them a miserly scattering

of
time release granules and a good dose of warm water to help plump up

the
potting mix, but thats IT, nothing more TILL I SEE BLOOM SCAPE peeking.

THEN I do water, because one needs to get those bloom scapes above the

neck
of the plant.

I have a 4 inch clay pot with 2 seedlings from one year ago, these are
seedllings from my own self -fertilized blooms from a seed-raised

plant.
I'm never going to be a commercial clivia breeder, but , by golly, I
started with seed, got bloom, NEW Seed, and new plants. Only took 12

years.

Looking this afternoon, I have some ripe seed from Last Year's bloom, I
could peel and start some more seeds. But why...... been there done

that.
Now I want a NEW challenge

Variegated Leaf Clivia, Yellow Flowers, multi-tepals.

I'm psycho, this is not appropriate behavior for someone in their 50's

Sue
Western Maine


"madgardener" wrote in message
...
Well, I need to enjoy that brief whiff of Spring. We are officially

back
to
Winter! This evening I watched as the temperatures dropped from 42o

and
rainy to 30o - 33o while we ran around in Knoxville trying to do last

minute
business. Squire and I had just gotten into the van and were

contemplating
going to Wallyworld when the air filled with sideways blowing sleet,

then
changed to snow that thickened up so fast, visibility was obscurred

and
it
looked foggy. We decided Wallyworld could wait (not to mention people

who
were panicking with the idea's of snow, winter storms, get that bread

and
milk laid in, the lines would be horrendous).

As we threaded our way thru a detour and back street unknown to me, I

began
to "fess up" to Squire about a trip I had ventured on yesterday while

son
was turning in his mileage and hours for the two weeks he'd swapped at
another Lowes. I had made the mistake of going into the small area

they
have designated for a tiny greenhouse at his Lowes and there she
was...............a lucious thing in full straps, green, with slightly
orange white buds held tight against the inside leaves, just barely
emerging. The one I was looking at was just starting to peek her buds

up
thru the protective sheaths of leaves and on the side a bit away from

the
central clump of leaves, another tiny sprout was showing itself, and

as
I
picked it up by the bulk of leaves carefully, I noticed nestled in the
potting soils, another tiny tongue poking up just off the side of that

one.

I sat her down, and looked thru the 12 quart pots and chose another

plant.
This one was much larger in girth, the just peeking bloom spike and

buds
were a bit more noticable, but not opening like one of the plants on

the
end
of the table where they were displayed. My heart beat faster, and I

decided
that I was to have one, and the one I was to have was the one birthing

two
more small shoots of leaves as well as the emerging bloom spike and

buds.
I
saw no price anywhere, and I didn't care.

Just an ordinary Clivia minata, but these were prepped and ready to

bloom
at
another day or two's insistance and warmth. As I carefully held the

plant
by it's thick stalk of leaves and bloom spike, I walked to the small
houseplant rack and peered thru the leaves searching for someone I was
curious to find again. And I did. A blackish leafed heart philodendrum

by
the name of Majestic. Search the leaves and ahhhhhhhh a small pot of

very
healthy and happy strawberry begonia, with three threads dangling tiny
leaves on their ends.

In losing the Golden Haneii sanseveria, the crocodile McCoy planter

needed
something more forgiving of the lack of drainage. I had the dark

leafed
philodendrum in mind, but not wanting to root cuttings, I decided I'd

look
for a pot, and if not finding it, then root tip cuttings. I hit it

lucky
in
finding the pot tucked in amongst the rest of the plants.
The strawberry Begonia or "Mother of thousands" went into the frog pot

that
another begonia had turned belly up in a while back. No disease, it

was
the
aridity of the house that had killed it quickly while I wasn't

looking.

I left quickly, knowing that my hands were full of sticky pots that

had
deliberately stuck to them, and knew I had no clue to the price to the
Clivia. I know that Pen down in Wanneroo, Australia will chastise me

for
buying another Clivia, but I can say that once I got home with my

bootie,
I
placed the pots on the kitchen table, went down to the cold tool room

and
picked up the massive pot of the ordinary pot of Clivia minata that

Pen
has
tried and tried to get me to successfully bloom after years attempts.

I've
had it now for 10 years, plus Mary Emma had it for five years before

me.
THIS year, I put her into the tool room where it gets quite cold, but

not
freezing, watered it well and have let it dry out. I have checked on

the
condition of her over the months, using the Scheffelera as a guage for
watering needs.
The Scheff got watered, she got dribbles.

In another smaller pot (which I fear is way too large for her) is a

precious
gift that Pen sent me. A YELLOW Clivia she had seed grown and shipped

to
a
nursery up in Michigan. Once the owner got his plants, inside his

order
was
a baby plant with instructions to ship to me once all inspections were

over.
I got it as a great surprise one day in my mailbox and promptly potted

her
up and watered her in and she spent her first spring and summer on the
balcony with the mother Clivia that sits off my son's bedroom facing

the
woods.

I have now moved them both into the warmer regions of Squire's Dragon

Cave
(where his computer resides quietly waiting for him to return off the

road
and tinker with it) and the moister laundry room just off the main

area.
Hopefully the older Clivia will reward me this year with buds like the

new
arrival already has. Maybe I should put them near each other so that

the
older will get jealous and set her buds finally?? gbseg
The temperatures outside have plummeted 24o or more degrees, the winds

are
pushing the flakes and pellets sideways and all the cats have come

inside.
Piquito has fluffed up like the hair ball he resembles, pantaloons and

all.
Even the dawgs who wanted soooo badly to go outside a moment ago, have
returned and actually begged and barked to be let back in. Smart

dawgs.
With temperatures dropping into single digits, winds gusting to 60 mph

and
making the wind chill temperatures resemble Minnesota and highs only

in
the
lower 20's tomorrow, I'd say that Old Man Winter had returned with a

snicker
aimed towards me when I relished in the brief whiff of Spring

yesterday
(the
temperatures actually started out today at 51o!)
Keep warm and at least this chill has set the Spring bulbs back on

course.
madgardener up on the ridge, back in Faerie Holler, overlooking

English
Mountain in Eastern Tennessee