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New to Caring for Clivia, Questions About Wintering to Induce Flowers

last year

A bit of background, I'm an American expat in Austria. I've spent a good deal of time in Clivia land in Swaziland (where I conducted research on wildlife) and in South Africa (where I met my wife).

Anyhow, I recently acquired this rather large Clivia at a second hand store. Because this is a thrift store buy I really don't know anything about its provenance or what variety it is, or what color the flowers are. I've had it outside now for a couple of weeks to give it a cold rest to induce flowering. Night time temperatures are starting to dip very close to 0*C and I worry that this might be too cold. We have a cellar with a SSE facing window but it has only been getting down to about 14*C right next to the cracked open window.

My questions: are brief periods of 0*C acceptable to Clivias? Is night temperature of 14-15*C and daytime temperatures of 17-18 suitable to induce flowering?

Thanks in advance for any sage words of advice!

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Comments (2)

socks
last year
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.
rusty_blackhaw
last year
Letting my Clivias get cool fall temps outdoors (above freezing) followed by low light basement dormancy at around 65 degrees resulted in spotty flowering at best. Dormancy accompanied by a few months of temps between 40-50F yielded abundant bloom. They really need that extended period of cool dormancy to flower well.
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If it's predicted to freeze - cover them at sunset. Remove it when the sun is about to hit the plants or when the temps are above freezing. Make sure the cover goes all the way to the ground, and is held off the leaves with something. I use 2x4s across saw horses to make a support for the frost cloth over a cluster of plants, or a tomato cage to protect a single plant. But this year I have ZERO plants that need protecting. We're redoing the chili growing area, so overwintering them is low priority.
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