Clivia Seedlings

I recently received three different batches of Clivia seeds. The first was for Clivia robusta, the second batch was from an assortment of all different varieties and styles, the third were all seeds from variegated parent plants. Each seed that sprouts will be different from one another and with over a hundred seeds, that's a lot of variation. Within three to five years the plants will bloom and flower color and form can be determined. In the meantime some cool things are happening with the seedlings.

Clivia robusta seedlings.

Twelve out of thirteen seeds from the Clivia robusta have sprouted, with the largest being about two inches tall. I started these in a shoe box tote. The bottom half is a coarse bark, charcoal blend and the top is a fifty-fifty vermiculite seed starting mix blend. This promoted deep root growth for the seedlings in a light and porous mix. While the seeds germinated I kept the top covered to promote humidity.

Mixed Clivia Seedlings

The mixed Clivia seeds have also started to sprout. There was about sixty seeds to start with and almost half have sprouted already, several seeds have rotted and have been removed from the seed tray. This is probably because I used a straight seed starting mix and it holds too much water. There were too many seeds and not enough space to start them like the Clivia robusta so they had to be started in a seed tray with the mix. The seedlings are a little more developed now than when i took this picture but there are already noticeable differences in leaf color, shape and growth. The mix already has one variegate and one seedling that appears to be dwarf but its still a little too early to tell.

Variegated Clivia seedling with one stripe down the middle.

The last batch of seeds started was a mix of seeds from variegated parent plants. I started off with fifty two seeds and more than half have sprouted. Unfortunately due to the number of seeds, these also had to be started in seed trays with a seed starting mix and several seeds have been discarded due to rot. If the variegation is genetic, the ratio of variegated plants is usually 1/3 variegated, 1/3 albino and 1/3 green leaved. Its still too early to determine ratios but there are several albinos in the bunch, several green leaved and many variegates with different levels of variegation. The albinos will all die off once the energy stored in the seed runs out, because they wont be able to create energy without any green pigment n the leaves.

Albino Clivia seedling.

In a few weeks when the seedling have at least two leaves, I'll re-pot them all into four inch pots. It would be better to use six inch but at the moment space doesn't allow for that. Then in the spring all of the seedlings will go out to the greenhouse for the summer to encourage as much vegetative growth as possible so maybe I can get some early bloomers.