More great shots from the indefatigable Mike S.:
Clivias are a plant I wouldn’t be without as they give us a great show of cheerful and beautiful at this time of year in our living room! I pronounce the name KL-eye’-vee-a and I think that is the accepted name now (not Kl-liv-ee-a). The current common name I’ve seen is bush-lily.
These South African bulbs don’t really go dormant, but they do need a cool period in late fall and early winter to bloom properly like this. Without cold, the flower stalks stay too short and the flowers are smashed down in the cracks between the leaves. Ours come into the cold basement garage or the cold greenhouse before freezing temps occur in the fall, and then up into the living room in January or February, and they bloom within a couple of weeks.
I don’t bring them all up at once so the blooming period (and our enjoyment) is spread out over more than a month. The flowers are pretty long lasting at two or three weeks, so they cheer me up whenever I look up from my chair and the view in pic #3.
The first three pics are of the first plant we bought over 25 years ago. It is very large plant that we bought at a nursery a single stem that was not quite blooming size. They like being pot-bound so I have only taken a couple of divisions off over the years. I can’t resist pollinating flowers and planting seeds so I’ve grown a number of others to blooming size since then.
The fourth pic is one of my seedlings with slightly paler flowers, but they open wider and I find the fuller look attractive.
I haven’t gotten any of the many cultivars that are available. I’m happy with my simple ones for now, but I know there are some other Juicers out there that are into Clivias too. Maybe they have some pictures to share!
We do have two plants with yellow flowers but neither is blooming this year. So picture #5 is an old one from 8 or 9 years ago. One almost got killed by cold 3 years ago when I left it out in the greenhouse one night too long, and it got partly frozen when the outside below-zero temps caused the greenhouse to drop below 30F. I saved it and have been nursing it since then. It may bloom next year. The other yellow one was just given to me by a friend last fall and I hope it will bloom next year too.
Our Clivias all live outside in a partly sunny area for the summer, and get lots of rain, plus water from us when we have to water our other potted plants. They like this, as a species is from the summer rainfall area of South Africa. I first put them out in a very shady spot for a week or so after Mother’s Day and then gradually move them into a sunny spot. If you put them directly into full sun the leaves will get sun-burned and have large ugly, dead or yellow patches for the next year or so!
Clivia seeds die if they dry out, so they need to be sown fresh, but then they take 5 or more years to get to blooming size for me.
I haven’t bought any since out first plant as they can be expensive, but I would happily if I need a start again.
***********
What’s going on in your garden (planning), this week?
satby
Beautiful as always, Mike S!
Here on the tundra, we’re going to inch above freezing temps for the first time in several weeks today. 34° will seem balmy.
mrmoshpotato
Boom! Color! Very nice.
OzarkHillbilly
On Tuesday or Wednesday of last week I ventured to town for the first time in a week or so. Driving across the Meramec at Meramec State Park I noticed an ice jam on the river just upstream of the bridge. The Meramec is a spring fed stream and it takes some truly extreme cold for it to ice up at the park. I’ve only seen it once before. Yesterday we hit 41 and the ice jam was gone.
46 today. 51 tomorrow. 62 on Tuesday. The Great Thaw of ’21 is upon us.
Mary G
I love clivias and have a bed full of them. They haven’t bloomed as well since we had to cut down on watering. They are cheerful plants.
Mary G
@OzarkHillbilly: I read yesterday’s threads late and want to express my sorrow that you had to let the Woofmeister go. May his memory be a blessing.
Jeffery
Am having an off year with clivias flowering. Only one orange pot with six 30 year old plants has two plants flowering. None of the yellow plants are flowering. Either some of the plants will flower in early summer when they have been outside for a month or so or next year plants may produce a very large bloom head or two flower spikes per plant. Never know.
sab
@Mary G: Lovely plants. I want some, but toxic to cats, so no.
sab
@OzarkHillbilly: I was late to the thread about Woofmeister’s passing. Sincere condolences. Labs are wonderful.
I went back through the archives and read a lot of your comments about him, and your post last summer about adopting him. What a beautiful boy. You gave him a life in the country other dogs could only dream about.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mary G: @sab: Thanx.
JeanneT
Wow! Those blossoms just glow.
I haven’t even ordered seeds for the garden yet, much less started any. Now I’m wondering if just buying seedlings in the spring will be the way to go….
debbie
Beautiful! Wish I had the conditions for growing clivias, but I know that they would not be happy.
sab
@sab: @Mary G:
I have the perfect place for those plants but Shadow the meankitty (not mean, just very high strung) would eat them just to relieve stress. Shadow and I have issues but I like her too much to let her poison herself (also too her sister Meg.)
Would they work in hanging baskets in a very cold (but not freezing) in winter sunroom?
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: It’s sad to lose a good friend like Woofie, but remember you brought such joy to his life.
Isua
Thank you for this, it brightened my morning! Mine aren’t blooming yet, but I’ve got a great big potfull that originated as one that my mom gave me to take to college 25 years ago. And that was a baby of her potfull, which had been her grandmother’s. Clivias last!
satby
@JeanneT: I haven’t started seeds yet, I meant to at least a week ago. But since last frost date for me is in May (and probably you too) we have time. Last year I both started seeds and bought some starter plants because the cats had knocked over my seedling tray and destroyed about half. Starter plants are productive pretty quickly since they’re older, but last year my seedlings caught up quickly and were producing when the older plants were starting to slow down. But it takes a bit of yield before you break even on buying plants.
Geminid
@JeanneT: There are plenty of seeds in the stores, including supermarkets like Krogers. Garden centers usually have a rack of more special seeds, in artistic packets with high pricetags, along with the racks of more plebean offerings. My growing experience is middling, but plants grown from seeds in the ground have seemed to do better than transplants, especially as to watering needs. I still buy peppers and tomatoes in four-packs, though
Planted in rows, vegetable seedlings are easy to spot. Floweres planted in an area, not so much. I’ll sometimes put a shell or a pebble next to, say, a hollyhock seed to mark it.
Mousebumples
@satby: OT, but since I see you in the thread, i figured I’d ask (and if i don’t see your response, I’ll end up emailing you) –
I was talking to a friend about your creams and sugar scrubs, and they were wondering if you had any muscle rub creams? (eg cream +menthol, probably)
On topic – i have some crocuses that may be coming up soon. Not sure that they can get through the snow drifts though, so we’ll see if or when i see those petals popping up through the snow.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@satby: I think we’re supposed to get rain too. That should flatten the piles of snow a little but also gum up the sidewalks.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Those clivias are gorgeous. Talk about show-off flowers!
oatler.
From The Man With Two Brains:
“What are those assholes doing on the porch?”
(condescending chuckle) “It’s pronounced ‘azaleas’ ,dear.”
OzarkHillbilly
@JeanneT: I started my eggplants and peppers last wkend. I’ll be starting my maters today or tomorrow. I could easily wait another week.
mrmoshpotato
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Break out the Wellies and laugh at the slush.
satby
@Mousebumples: I don’t do muscle rubs, sorry. I stay away from anything that could be considered “medicinal” only because so many natural soap and skincare makers make unfounded, unscientific, and probably illegal medicinal claims. It’s a real pet peeve of mine.
Having said that, I always got great relief from Solonpas and Aspercream when I had aches.
satby
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yeah, we’re predicted to get a mix. So melting, flooding, and icing all in one day. Good times!
Mousebumples
@satby: I’ll pass that along, thanks!
MomSense
@OzarkHillbilly:
I was very late to the morning thread, yesterday. Thinking of you and the Woof.
These flowers are gorgeous, Mike S. I’m in a funk about what to do with my gardens. Our weather patterns have changed and I’m not sure what to plant.
sab
We have been in the teens ° all week. My little city went nuts on snowplows and salt trucks: at least 5 passes last night. Normal winters we get two all winter.
Note to self: Always vote for the councilman/alderman from your immediate neighborhood unless he is a Repub nut job.
We used to get extra plowing because our city plowguy’s cousin lived right next door. That ended when they moved to Texas (and left us their fine dog.
ETA I liked them a lot. We haven’t kept in touch. I hope they are okay.
sab
@OzarkHillbilly: Last I heard you thought March was too early for tomatoes. Why the change? Inside this year?
SiubhanDuinne
@oatler.:
“Azalea” is one of those words for me that I knew only through reading, not conversation, so I always (in my head) pronounced it AZ-uh-lee. I think I was in my twenties before I learned better.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
OzarkHillbilly
@sab: I think you misremember. I’ve always started my maters on or about 2/15. I resolved to wait at least a week longer this year because the last couple years they got really leggy.
ETA: last frost date here is 4/15, tho I have yet to have a year where I didn’t have to fret it on a few nights.
sab
@OzarkHillbilly: Ohio being a bit north, I ‘ll adjust. Thanks.
Yep. I misremember a lot.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Baud
debbie
@Baud:
Those other photographs are also great.
WaterGirl
Just stunning, Mike!
WereBear
@OzarkHillbilly: Wanted you to know I’m really sorry about Woofie. You were prepared and it still doesn’t matter :(
OzarkHillbilly
Peek a Boo…
If that doesn’t make you smile, you are broken.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
OMG, the sound!
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: Do I have to keep repeating — like a parrot?
I am broken and it still made me smile.
My cat plays peekaboo with me, bit without the sound! I have two doors to my bedroom into the hallway — around, back, under the bed, peeking around a corner. Boo! He goes scampering.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: Tweet is unavailable. :-(
Kabecoo
I gave this one to our son, he easily gets twice as many flower stalks as I ever did.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/keithbuchholz54/50522112772/
OzarkHillbilly
@WaterGirl: Well damn, I thought I found it at Rex Chapman’s but it doesn’t appear to be there. I’ll keep looking. Until then, try this on for size:
debbie
@WaterGirl:
In case it’s never reposted, there’s a can of soda on a desk, and a little yellow bird is hiding behind it. It pops its head up over the can several times and chirps “peek-a-boo” or wolf-whistles (?) or makes other happy sounds. It really is very cute and smile-making.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: That is one happy pup!
WaterGirl
@debbie: That sounds adorable!
TaMara (HFG)
@OzarkHillbilly: Oh, so sorry to hear this. Sending hugs from me and all the four-footers and winged beasts.
OzarkHillbilly
@WaterGirl: I found the twitter feed (Frankie-Hart101.5) but no Peek-a-Boo. This one is of the same bird tho:
TomatoQueen
Oh those clivia, absolutely lovely and finicky and slow. Also expensive, but even if they never bloom, they’re a most useful houseplant for a dim corner. I’d start ’em again but a)I don’t trust Merlin the Batshit Crazy and b)the winter chill question is one I can’t manage in this apartment. Should the US Botanical Garden open up again, there’s a monster indoor display of ’em, often coinciding with their orchid show. The last visit with my mum was great fun for her as she was a clivia-in-the-ground grower from girlhood in L.A., and managed tons of them indoors in Connecticut. She managed agapanthus indoors pretty well too–but ranunculus always disappointed.
TaMara (HFG)
Such beautiful flowers/photos.
I just started a seedling nursery. I don’t usually do that, I don’t have a lot of success, but I really, really wanted san marzano tomatoes this year and seeds seemed to be the only way to go.
Amazing how much I’m enjoying having pots and trays set up and waiting hopefully to see my first sprouts.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Watch Tasha peek-a-boo!
satby
@TomatoQueen: I have never had luck with ranunculus either. So frustrating.
OzarkHillbilly
@TaMara (HFG): I get a lot of satisfaction out of it too. Bonus that I get to eat veggies I can’t buy at any store around here.
@raven: I’ve seen it before but it is still funny as all fuck.
OzarkHillbilly
It’s time for me to begin my day but I want to say to all both yesterday and today, thanx for all the kind thoughts.
tybee
Opinions wanted:
I have an overgrown garden that I need to bring back to productivity.
A friend gave me a lot of large cardboard boxes from when they moved.
I’m contemplating covering the garden with the broken down boxes and then covering the cardboard with leaves and letting that go for a month or three.
My delemma is that we have box turtles in the yard and occasionally, in the spring when digging in the garden, we uproot some pretty small specimens of box turtle (nickle to 50 cent piece sized).
We’ve never dug up a large one but they appear in the yard in the spring.
If I cover the garden with cardboard and leaves, will the turtles be able to claw through what should be soggy cardboard in a month or so?
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@tybee: No, I don’t think the cardboard will break down fast enough.
I’m glad people enjoyed the pictures today.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: Thank you! I wonder what happened with the peek-a-boo tweet. ?♀️
Another Scott
@tybee: I dunno. But it’s an interesting question. I did some googling.
One site said that adult turtles start coming out and being active when the ground gets to 50F. Another said that one can protect babies via a rock-weighted metal cage above nesting sites.
I guess if you’re willing to carefully search around for the adults and nesting sites, then you can do what you need. Otherwise, it might be best to wait – the cardboard may delay the ground warming some in addition to making it more difficult for the beasties to get out.
HTH a little. Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
eponymous
@TaMara (HFG):
You might check out Laurel’s Heirloom Tomato plants, I will try to link, but you can find it easily by googling the name. The plants are healthy and they pack them very well. The issue I have is picking just a few varieties!
https://www.heirloomtomatoplants.com/
JeanneT
@OzarkHillbilly: @satby: @Geminid:
Ah! You are encouraging!
Last year I started my peppers and eggplant too late – the eggplants (Hansel) actually caught up by the end of summer, but the pepper plants were stunted and never bore fruit. My tomato seedlings last year were slow to grow, but kept bearing till late October. Maybe if I get the peppers and eggplants planted ASAP I won’t be far behind! I do have some seeds left over from last season.
FWIW, my best tomato last year was Chef’s Choice Orange. Will definitely plant that one again!
So, in case anyone is still on the thread, what’s your best seed starting mix?
J R in WV
Our younger dogs brought home a couple of turtles they had found and dug up, one was dead or dying from being broken into, the other was in pretty good shape. But since they had dug in to hibernate, I was unsure what to do. Plus one leg was out and had a tiny bit of damage.
So I took it to our Vet clinic — fortunately the founder, an older guy who has been our vet for over 40 years now, was on site. The women at the front desk were a little taken aback, and I asked if the original Dr was in… Yes, and so one of them took me into the back, where Dr was sitting, leaning back.
He broke the biggest smile, “You brought me a turtle!” he said, and I handed it to him and told the sad tale of my young dogs. He said “I’ll take it home with me this evening, my wife has a big compost pile in the back yard and we always have a ton of turtles out there. He’ll be fine.”
The dogs brought turtles home intact before winter… I would drive them to the head of the hollow, a more or less dog free zone, and release them into the wild again. But once the weather turns and they have dug in, I’m at a loss for how to handle them. Glad to have a fun Vet to turn to.
StringOnAStick
I had to give away my huge clivia because I knew we couldn’t move it, but I took an offset from it that is doing well, and helped my sadness at giving away the big one by purchasing a tiny but exotic flowered one, also doing well. I’ve ordered a grab bag of 3 unlabeled exotic baby ones, to arrive later this spring.
Now that I know about the winter chill period and have a space where I can do that, I hope my blooming success improves! Thanks!
We saw huge beds of them blooming in Buenos Aires in September a few years ago; so gorgeous!
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@JeanneT: We buy large bales of ProMix BX, so I’m not the best person to ask, but whichever brand you buy you need to amend it for greater aeration/drainage. Adding extra pearlite is the easiest (and lightest) way to do that. (I DO NOT LIKE vermicultie.) However we use a gravel-like calcined clay product like Soilmaster or Turface which are made for sports fields to provide drainage but prevent compaction. Some people like some brands of unscented clay-pellet kitty litter but they aren’t reliably fired at a high enough temp to make them reliable as a soil amendment.
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@StringOnAStick: Where did you buy your fancy Clivias? Buenos Aires. Hmmmm…………
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@J R in WV: Box turtles are very sedentary or maybe territorial is a better word. I was part of a box turtle marking and tracking project at a PA State Park back in the 1980s One turtle we marked (harmless marginal shell notches) in 1983 was re-found in 2017, about 200 yards from the original capture spot! It was a male over 20 years old when first marked. My estimation is that is is probably old enough now to collect social security! They do travel farther, but they learn their territory.
TaMara (HFG)
@eponymous: Oh, that’s a good option if my seedlings fail (I’m at 50/50 optimistically here)
White & Gold Purgatorian
@JeanneT: I generally use whatever seed starting mix they have at the store, although I’m not going to the store anymore because of COVID, Lol. The bag I have now is Ferti-lome and has worked fine. You don’t need a lot because after the seedlings come up you want to pot them on using a potting soil mix. The last few years I’ve been using FoxFarm potting soil which is pricey but has given good results. I start seeds in the pressed paper type egg cartons, 4 or 5 seeds per cell, then pot them on into very small paper bags with the tops folded down to make a rectangular “paper pot”.
Just potted on our latest batch of tomatoes and peppers yesterday. They join their older fellows of early tomatoes and eggplants under grow lights in an upstairs closet. I’ve found peppers and eggplants really need to be warm to get good germination, like 80 degrees. And they take a few days longer than tomatoes even at the same temperatures. The difficult part with the egg cartons is keeping track of what seeds are in each cell.
Growing plants from tiny seeds is such a miracle. I love it.
StringOnAStick
@Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!): I went to cliviasusa.com and found 3 kinds of grab bags offered, but the yellow group and the red group are unavailable, so I got the “some of everything” one.
Next to the beds of clivia in Buenos Aires were what I recognised (I think) as miniature pomegranate shrubs, they were just starting to leaf out. Unfortunately my potted version didn’t survive our move, and there’s not enough direct sun windows here to try another. We did end up with a bigger yard though and my big box of drop irrigation supplies arrived yesterday!
eponymous
@TaMara (HFG):
I expect you’ll have more luck than I did, which is how I discovered this… She has a charmingly retro website.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
I have a bit of a dilemma. First spring in my new place, some stuff needs trimming, some needs cutting down/pulling up, but between allergies and physical deficiency I can no longer do it myself. The company handling my yard wants 600 to “clean up” a front garden of about 300 square feet? I’m out of my depth here. Need to find some other options…
J R in WV
@Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!):
Very interesting.
They’re slow moving but determined. I moved a few away from our dogs, but in the same hollow, maybe a mile away, tops. So their environment should be just the same as it was on our place with the house. We also own the land at the head of the hollow, it’s not residential or actively farmed right now, just wild woods again.
Except for the turtle they delivered after their hibernation started, I felt Dr B would provide at least great advice, was relieved when he offered to take the little guy home that evening. You should have seen his smile when he said “Wow, you brought me a turtle!” — there are 4 great other young vets in his clinic now, but he’s the greatest. Both our cats came from the clinic, he runs an underground rescue service too.
I think my dogs have learned to leave turtles alone now, I sure hope so!
Geminid
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): Six hundred dollars is a lot for cleaning up 300 sq.ft. Especially if the plant debris can be disposed of in a mulch pile on site, which may or may not be the case. There are still solo operators- yard men, so to speak, one of whom might do your project on an hourly or day rate for less money. If it’s just a matter of clean up, it would be hard to take much more than a day to take care of a 300 sq. ft. patch. If you can hook up with an effective worker, even if they are not fast, you might later get some digging and planting from him or her also.
Obviously, finding one, and one who is not too busy, is the trick. These folks don’t neccesarily find work through internet forums (although if I lived in Alabama you might have gotten one through the strangely named “Balloon Juice.”) An inquiry to a working class church might yield a reliable worker, maybe a retired person who could use some supplemental income, and is up to manual labor. Or, a younger person who wants some weekend work. You might even know someone who knows somebody. If material needs to be disposed of offsite, a country person would be more likely to have a truck and a place for disposal. But it may be there is a spot that debris can be stacked and let decompose. (Compost starter or nitrogen fertilizer accelerates decomposition. So does tarping the pile in sunny weather). Good luck with this project!