Well Howard, lookee here, you want to go to Chicago. Lots of company. The thing with going back to NY rather than elsewhere, for me, is that NY is easy to get into and out of, I can do a RT in one day, don't need hotels, don't need to rent a car, don't need a pet sitter at home etc, etc, etc..... That and I don't feel like taking my vacations in the States going to orchid shows. If I'm going to go to the trouble of organizing a few days out of town, I want it to be well worth it. Albeit,it's fun meeting people from the forum. Not having Paul around anymore to take care of the dogs and birds, when I decide to disappear for a couple of days, just adds another "issue" to consider. At the moment,I don't have the energy.

Well, you are having an interesting life! Thanks for sharing your experiences. You must have been delighted to find the potted clivia. Looks healthy to me. Sorry you haven't gotten any help here. I grow them outside, in the ground all year, so I'm not familiar with keeping this plant inside. Mine grow in full shade against a wall where they are protected from excessive heat or cold. . I would suggest you clip off the bloom stems from last year so your plant puts it's energy into new blooms rather than supporting the old ones. Clip short, don't leave them long. I would also suggest fertilizing. By now you've probably done an internet search "clivia care" to get some temperature guidelines.

Hi, Carmen. It's quite possible the spoiled foliage is a manifestation of watering it "when the soil starts to dry". If you're following the commonly parroted advice to water when the top inch or two of the grow medium feels dry to the touch, you're over-watering. By way of repetition, that advise has become pretty much a reflex reply, but it's really a recipe for over-watering. If you're using a pot that's say 10" deep, when the top inch or two of the grow medium is dry to the touch the bottom 6" (or more) of medium can be 100% saturated. this limits root function, can destroy root health, and robs an untold % of your plant's potential in terms of growth, vitality, and appearance. When root function is limited, the ability to efficiently move water to the plant's distal parts is curtailed, which causes necrotic areas on leaf tips and margins. Over-watering can also cause a physiological disorder called oedema/ edema. Your plant presents with both symptoms. Complicating the issue is the fact that your grow medium looks very water-retentive, and your plant really should be treated as a succulent because it's so intolerant of wet feet. If your pot is deeper than 5", it really doesn't matter how dry the top 2" of the grow medium are. Most of the roots in the upper 3rd of most soil columns serve primarily as plumbing anyway. They lack the almost microscopically fine roots that do the lion's share of the plant's heavy lifting, and as such relatively unimportant. What is most important is moisture conditions at the bottom of the pot. The grow medium in the deepest part of the pot should be almost completely dry before you consider giving your plant more water. You can monitor conditions there best by using a homemade wooden tell. I'll leave some additional things I wrote about using a tell and oedema. I think that will help you get your plant back on track, though the signs things are better will be found only in unblemished new growth. It would be a good idea to talk a bit about your watering habits, and to make sure you have a nutritional supplementation program that fills your plant's needs. Let me know if you want to have that conversation, because they are key elements of any care regimen. This link should help, too. Using a 'tell' Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need plenty of air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support the kind of root health most growers would like to see; and, a healthy root system is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips leads to avoid over-watering leads to a residual build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil from tapwater and fertilizer solutions, which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma. It creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor. In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water. Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'. One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) would work better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half and serve as a pair. Sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell comes out dry or nearly so. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue. Oedema Oedema (aka edema) is a physiological disorder that can affect all terrestrial plants. It occurs when the plant takes up more water than it can rid itself of via the process of transpiration. The word itself means 'swelling', which is usually the first symptom, and comes in the form of pale blisters or water-filled bumps on foliage. Under a variety of circumstances/cultural conditions, a plant's internal water pressure (turgidity) can become so high that some leaf cells rupture and leak their contents into inter-cellular spaces in leaf tissue, creating wet or weepy areas. Symptoms vary by plant, but as the malady progresses, areas of the leaf turn yellow, brown, brown with reddish overtones or even black, with older damage appearing as corky/ scaly/ ridged patches, or wart/gall-like bumpy growth. Symptoms are seen more frequently in plants that are fleshy, are usually more pronounced on the underside of leaves, and older/lower leaves are more likely to be affected than younger/upper leaves. Oedema is most common in houseplants during the winter/early spring months, is driven primarily by excessive water retention in the soil, and can be intensified via several additional cultural influences. Cool temperatures, high humidity levels, low light conditions, or partial defoliation can individually or collectively act to intensify the problem, as can anything else that slows transpiration. Nutritional deficiencies of Ca and Mg are also known contributors to the malady. Some things that can help you prevent oedema: * Increase light levels and temperature * Monitor water needs carefully – avoid over-watering. I'd heartily recommend a soil with drainage so sharp (fast) that when you to water to beyond the saturation point you needn't worry about prolonged periods of soil saturation wrecking root health/function. Your soil choice should be a key that unlocks the solutions to many potential problems. * Avoid misting or getting water on foliage. It slows transpiration and increases turgidity. * Water as soon as you get up in the AM. When stomata close in preparation for the dark cycle, turgidity builds. If you water early in the day, it gives the plant an opportunity to remove (for its own needs) some of the excess water in the soil. * Put a fan in the room or otherwise increase air flow/circulation. Avoid over-crowding your plants. Al

I'll try to get a better shot tomorrow when there is natural light. I had already cut out some of the leaves I was most concerned about, before I decided I needed some advice. I was worried because I was seeing the odd brown areas on both old leaves and young new ones, though the "chewed" effect is only on the edges of older leaves. It looks like 2-3 larger plants and about 5 little ones. I have not tried tipping it out of the pot, but will do that tomorrow. What am I looking for in the roots? (The friend it came from is generally very knowledgeable about plants and has a large collection of thriving houseplants. I was surprised when I got this plant home and noticed the condition of the leaves but was reluctant to ask about it since it was a gift. But I could. Just hoping to have a better idea of what might be going on first...)