Clivia mirabilis - a photographic expedition to wild populations

It is very interesting to note that the early plant hunters were collecting plants as early as the late 1600's along the West Coast of South Africa and Namakwaland, but missed the evading mirabilis. Instead its closest relative, clivia nobilis, was the first clivia discovered by plant hunters and collectors and described in 1828. Clivia miniata followed in 1854.

However the indigenous people was always aware of this beautiful desert beauty and picked the beautiful flowers to show the first white settlers who moved into these areas. Although the first white people tried to plant them in their gardens and nearby beach houses, they were unsuccessful most of the time. Clivia mirabilis was rediscovered in the late 1990's in the Oorlogskloof Nature Reserve and named for the first time. I have studied these plants for a couple of years in the wild and the below photo collection is part of the presentation I gave at the 2006 World Clivia Conference. A lot of scientific research has been done in the meantime and it is interesting to see how I picked up the similarities between nobilis and mirabilis so many years ago. That time it was thought that mirabilis was the ancestor of all clivia, but research has shown that it is merely a close relative of nobilis. I hope you can learn a lot from looking at these photos and my observations that time. These photos were taken over a period of a couple of years during the different months of the year to give you a feeling how mirabilis is struggling to survive in the wild. During the years before 2006, Namakwaland was going through a dry period and you can see how even the trees that was the last protection for mirabilis against the sun was starting to die. Luckily mirabilis is as tough as agapanthus and aloe and survived the hot dry cycle to recover fully during the wet period that followed after 2007. 

From time to time I sell clivia mirabilis seed, so feel free to e-mail me around beginning February each year as the seed ripens around end February to beginning March. During this time of the year temperatures can reach up to 50 deg C in the mountains where they grow and harvesting seed is by all means not an easy process as you have to be on the look out for dangerous snakes all the time. Send me an e-mail at heingrebe@ymail.com to put your name on the seed list. For clivia mirabilis seedlings or hybrid clivia mirabilis seedlings you can also send me a mail and then I can tell you what is available. Click on the photos below to expand it.

The last photo shows the owner, Mias Vollgraaff, and his youngest son Jonathan in a small 4 wheel drive vehicle that is used to visit the plants. It is small enough to go underneath the trees and can move easily over rough, steep and uneven terrain. The farm is a couple of thousand ha in size. Most of the veld is still in pristene original condition with a wide range of indigenous plants growing there ranging from succulent and stone plants to aloes & trees. A wide range of indigenous flower bulbs as well as rare orchids can be seen in flower each year if the rain comes in time. 

Superior flowers from variegated miniata

In the mid 1990's John Winter gave me few Kirstenbosch Supreme plants. Kirstenbosch rank as one of the top botanical gardens in the world and is situated in Cape Town. Kirstenbosch Supreme is a result of a cross between a group 1 and a group 2 yellow and has a round umbel with dark flowers with yellow and white centers. A photo of it can be seen on the back cover of Clivia Yearbook 2. This plant was crossed again with another old favourite with large yellow flowers called Noyce Sunburst. The result is even a better plant with the majority who has pin striped variegated leaves and large flowers with round umbels that range in colour from yellow to an almost red bronze.  Two years ago I pollinated these plants with each other and the result is a large % of seedlings with better variegation than the parents. I will have to wait a few years to see the flower shape, size and colours. Last year I have pollinated these group of plants again with each other as well as with variegated Chinese broad leaf and variegated LOB with superior flowers to get a wider colour variation on the leaves and broader and shorter leaves. This year I make a few seeds available of these crosses. If interested you can contact me at heingrebe@ymail.com or have a look at my 2011 seed list. Below are photos of the plants in flower taken in 2010. The sad thing to-day is that I cannot trace one of my original Kirstenbosch plants between my collection of approx 150 000 plants as I would like to use it again as a breeding parent with this small collection of plants as the colourful centers of the Kirstenbosch Supreme is missing.

Frogs and Arum lilies

Over the years I have taken many photos of small frogs hiding inside clivia flowers. The inside cover photo of Clivia Nature and Nurture was taken by me on my farm. When it is not clivia flowering time they hide inside arum lilies to catch insects. I have taken the photos below when a frog moved out of the arum lily flower to take a break basking in the winter sun. By moving in and out of the flowers they pollinate the flowers. See if you can see the pollen on the frog in the second and last photos. 

Fukurin and Mandarin Duck LOB

Below are a couple of my favourite clivia - Fukurin and Mandarin Duck LOB Darumas with an ordinary Fukurin. Most of the plants in the pictures originate from Anshan and I imported them many years ago as 2 to 3 year old seedlings.

More photos of my variegated clivia flower

Below are more photos of my variegated clivia flower. All photos were taken in white light or outside light to reflect the true colours of the flowers. In some I have used a colour chart to compare the colours of the flowers.You will notice that in some of the photos the variegation has become a dark green. The reason for this is that I have placed the plant for a couple of days in full sun light to reflect the true colours of the flowers and its petals. In nature most clivia grow in shaded areas under trees or bushes and the flowers easily get damaged when exposed to direct sunlight, wind or rain. When exposed to direct sunlight many flowers become darker like the blushes and pinks which might be an indication that it is not the true colours if kept in a dark spot. The albino flowers stayed white while the green variegated flowers has become darker and some of the lighter parts of the variegation has become a darker green. Two flowers had a few orange petals and some had a few orange dots on the flower petals. The orange petals are a little bit bigger in size when compared to the albino and variegated petals.

The photos below show the second bloom of this specific plant with more variegated flowers than the first bloom and with an increase in flower count. The flower stem is also longer. This year I have repotted it and it will be difficult to predict an improvement on the bloom in the photos below.

I believe variegated flowers are quite common in plants, but it is somehow rarer in clivia. So far I have two plants out of a total of 2000 flowering size Chinese plants that produce variegated flowers. I have never noticed or seen variegated flowers on ordinary clivia miniata. From what I have read on the internet, plants with an unstable gene pool produce variegated flowers and breeding with them can poduce a variety of different flower colours. Whether it is true for clivia must still be seen. Luckily this plant produce useable pollen on all the different flowers, whether albino or variegated or mixed orange/variegated as well as seed. The first year I harvested one seed and this year six seeds were harvested and planted in a separate pot to observe their growth rate and the type of flowers they will produce. I will appreciate it if someone who has done breeding with variegated flowers or has any information about the cause of variegated flowers can forward or share it with me at heingrebe@ymail.com    

Variegated Flowers of my variegated Chinese Clivia

Below are photos of my variegated plant with variegated flowers. In 2008 I have seen photos of such a plant in a Clivia book in China. Since some photos in books are faked, I started to ask around if someone has seen similar flowers on a plant. A collector in Beijing responded positively and told me that he had a couple, but sold them as the flowers are not stable. He could not show me any photos of his plants or where I could look for similar plants. I forgot about them and when I returned to South Africa in November 2009 one of the plants I imported as a seedling a few years earlier had a variegated flower on it. Unfortunately the flower was damaged. The plant come from one of the top 5 growers in China in 2006 who lives in Changchun. It is a relatively small plant with thick narrowish leaves with good variegation on the leaves. When I returned in 2010 from China, it flowered a month after my arrival, again in November. This time with more flowers and one flower with three orange petals - one of them variegated. I took the plant outside the shadehouse to photograph it in natural light.

Note the white flowers on the white section of the flower stem and the variegated flowers on the variegated side. I decided to place the plant in a suuny spot inside my house where it will be exposed to full sunlight for at least 4 hours per day to see the real colours of the flowers as shady conditions usually lead to lighter coloured flowers. Unfortunately I forgot about the plant and remember about it only on the 3rd day - after the sun damaged the flowers a little bit. But at least the true flower colours has become visible. Note the orange rims on some of the flower petals and the darker green variegation that makes the variegation almost invisible.

At the same time another interesting Chinese plant was in flower that produce green tulip flowers every year.

The colour of the flowers changed somehow after a few days in the sun as I placed it with the plant with the variegated flowers in the house. The green of the flowers is still visible to a degree.

The green leaf plant with the green tulip flowers easily produce seed, but the variegated plant produced only one seed a year ago.This year I am hoping to harvest at least four seeds from it. I suspect that the variegated plant will produce a % of offspring with variegated flowers, but will have to wait a couple of years to see the results.

Holland Tulips & Keukenhof Gardens: May - June 2011

Its been a very long time since I posted something on my blog.  I am back on the farm in George, South Africa, after an absence of almost 5 months. The idea was to add a lot of material to my blog while in China, but to my horror I discovered that I cannot open the blog there, because most of Google's facilities like Facebook, blogspots etc is no longer available in China. I was lucky to spend a month in Europe visiting Holland, Belgium and the north of France. We were blessed with good weather and I was lucky to see Holland's tulips in flower. What a sight to see millions of flower bulbs in full bloom and in Keukenhof Gardens many growers display their plants in flower beds for everyone to see and admire. Although one might struggle to find a place in a hotel during the peak flower season when  everything is more expensive, it is worth the while to visit at least one flower bulb farm and then of cause Keukenhof Gardens. I plan to return soon to visit specialist flower bulb growers once I have prepared a proper space to plant some on my farm.





Below are a few photos taken in Keukenhof Gardens - a place I can easily spend a day or two