It has to do with watering. The plant rests through fall and winter; in winter it should be kept cool and dry. After that, watering should increase slowly or the emerging buds will get caught among the leaves. When the flower stem is 4 inches long, move the plant to a warmer place and water more but do not overwater. Do not turn the plant at all. Cut the stem off after flowering to prevent the plant's energy going into fruit formation. I have found it is best to keep your plant outside in a shady spot until temperatures approach freezing. This helps encourage flowering for the next year. Elsie, the stem may still grow above the leaves. I have had mine take some time to grow up between the leaves. This is a very forgiving plant. One year my husband left a window open on a day with minus 30 temps with my clivia in front of it. She partially froze and I thought she was a goner but she did fine and bloomed beautifully that spring.

Marric: I've had several Clivia seeds sprout inside the seed pod. It's not that unusual when the berries are on the plant for six months or more. Some of mine sprout even before the berry changes color. I also soak the ones that haven't sprouted yet in a 3-1 mix of water and hydrogen peroxide because they can take weeks to sprout and are at risk of succumbing to fungal diseases during that time. They usually sprout in the water well. If I cover Clivia seeds when I plant them on top of the mix instead of in water, I use plastic wrap and not something like foil that would block light. They should not be buried. I highly recommend the link from Shields Garden.

short flower stem means the plant did not have sufficiently long period of cold - more time in cold stage = longer stem. usually about a month of cold temp 40-50 and dry, will create nice long stem. the leaf looks like a ?sunburn - but i'm not really sure 100% - try turning the plant around and see if it gets better or worse - that will test my theory - paul m.

Hi everyone. Today I got a new clivia. I tried to read up on as much information as possible with care and culture but I had a question? The mix it's in looks pretty heavy and I was wondering if I should wait until Spring to put it in a better mix or should I do it now? I think it was recently severed from the main plant, and the guy that sold it to me said it should flower next year. I have it near a south facing window, which is pretty much the sunniest part of my house. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Here's some pictures of it (please pardon the surrounding mess.)