I am so envious, your Clivia's are gorgeous. Can I ask what soil mix you use for your Clivia's?

Patricia

Patricia,
The plant pictured was newly purchased last season. It is growing and still is growing in a typical grower type spaghnum peat based potting soil. Just like you would buy bedding plants in.

My grow blend for all of the plants I have imported and my seedlings consists of composted forest products, Perlite and horticultural charcoal. I started using my base product the potting soil with no spaghnum peat because of problems with fungus gnats indoors. Fungus gnat eggs are found in the spaghnum peat soil mixes commercially available. I add significant amounts of perlite maybe 1/4 the total volume of the blend and about 1/8 horticultural charcoal. So it is a little less than half drainage material.

There are many many growers and as many mixes to match. The soil used should have a low ph or be acidic. It must be well drained and porous to allow air circulation to the roots. If these criteria are met Clivia should be easy to grow.

As a testament to Clivia durability and adaptability there are growers who pot their plants in poorly draining Clay. I have also heard of other growers using Spaghnum Peat that soaks up water like a sponge. This is obviously contradictory to the conventionally held beliefs on Clivia culture.

The growers in Belgium have yet another technique. They grow their plants hydroponically in inert soil-less medium and supplementally fertilize the plants. They have perfected their techniques and can get their breeding stock and genetic material from seed to bloom in 16 mos -2 yrs.

A lot of people find themselves second guessing all their yrs of gardening experience when they start out with Clivia. For good reason because I have never paid even 1.00 for a single seed until starting out in Clivia. But they are durable and adaptable and every grower needs to find out which soil is best suited to their climate and care regime.