Orange lip variegated flowers of Five Coloured Orchid Variegated Chinese Clivia

Below are photos of one of my most valuable breeding plants. The leaves have five colours - white, light grey, dark grey and two shades of green. Grey and white are very sought after colours on variegated clivia leaves and a combination of these colours are quite rare to find.  Grey are usually found on fukurin variegation. The colours of the flowers are white, light green, medium green, yellow and orange. The flowers develop as white, green or green variegated flowers. The inner center of the flowers is a combination of two colours, yellow and orange in this case. This is also a rare phenomenon and something I have seen only on some ghost flowers. As the flowers open, orange start to develop around the edge of the petals. As for the leaves of this highly sought after variegated clivia, each flower looks differently with different patterns developing on the petals. When the flowers open the green variegation is quite pronounced, but it fades into either white or green or vague variegation when the flower is ready to drop. The pollen grains are much larger than any type of clivia and it is extremely difficult to get seed from this clivia, although it is luckily not sterile. It is approximately 7 years old and has made no offsets. Some of its seedlings should flower within a year or two and it will be interesting to see whether they also have variegated picotee flowers. Unlike other clivia plants with variegated flowers, the flowers of this plant is large and fully developed. The picotee and variegation patterns are visible on both side of the petals as you can see from the last photos. It is said that plants with variegated flowers and break up of flower colours as the case with this plant is used to create new flower colours.

A few red clivia flowers at the beginning of the flowering season

Below are a few photos of shades of red at the beginning of the 2010 flowering season. I have used a colour chart to demonstrate the colour shades which is not always 100% effective, because of the reflection of light from the smooth surface, while the flowers absorb most of the light. The second reason I use the colour chart is to give you an indication of the size of the flowers. Look at the different shapes of the petals and flowers which is an indication of the breeding background. Red pollinated with red does not mean the offspring will necessary be red flowers.

 Click on the images to enlarge it.

 

A winner discovered growing on the pavement - Toy Jennings' Ella van Zijl

I met Toy Jennings in 1998. Her love for clivia opened my eyes and after my first visit to her house I really become excited about growing clivias. She had a big collection of clivia with colours ranging from dark red, yellow, apricot, guava, orange etc. Many prize winners come from her collection and her clivia has won many prizes over the years. I can still remember the very first clivia I bought from het was a broad leaf cyrtantiflora with purplish flowers.

As a matter of fact, after a few visits, I was infected by a terrible disease called the clivia disease which forced me to have a relook at my clivia collection. Toy inherited a beautiful collection of clivia built up by her mother, Edna Jennings, over many years in 1980. When her mother died she had to look after her mother's friend Ella van Zijl, maiden surname Green, who was living in Pretoria. When she died in 1986 Toy noticed two clivias growing next to the pavement in front of her house and asked the gardener to remove them to add them to her collection. Big was the surprise when they flowered that year at her house.

Although the flowers open orange, the colour transforms into a pinkish silver. Apart from the beautiful flower colour, the flower petals curl back and the flower head forms a round ball, called by some clivia growers in the Cape a posie. This plant was in flower at the very first Clivia show being held in Pretoria in the early nineties and won the Best on Show prize. Over the years it has won more first prices at clivia shows in other parts of South Africa. Toy also discovered an almost similar plant which belonged to professor Jurie Geldenhuys of Pretoria which she named after him. Toy has listed both these plants to be auctioned at this year's international clivia conference in Cape Town.