Doc don't you have to take shots for that to get your passport?

;-)

No, but you DO have to be certifiably insane to pay for mature clivia plants. Good God, even some SEED goes for $50 or more PER SEED. Clivia nuts are REALLY nuts.

I have had lots of fun watching these seeds germinate. They are great big things -- sort of like small shiny garbanzo beans -- and they put out quite a thick, serious looking root when they germinate. Just the thing to brighten a cold winter's day!

Ione, out of the 20 or so adenium seedlings that I started with variegated parentage, only ONE has shown any sign of variegation. I have several with white veins, but apparently that's not uncommon.
Like your clivia, they do make cute little seedlings. But I was really hoping for variegation.

Yeah, the inheritance of variegation can be a tricky thing. I dunno how it works in adeniums, either.

In clivias, variegation is inherited through the maternal line. Even more specifically, the seeds must come from striped berries. And IF these conditions are met, then you still have to deal with the possibility that the seeds may be completely albino -- which will die from lack of chlorophyll.

IF all those conditions are met, then I *believe* the likelihood of obtaining variegated babies is pretty good. I've got 14 seeds from longitudinally variegated moms, and I'll be getting....ummmm.....I think about 15 more from "Light of Buddha" variegated moms, so I'm hoping for at least a few good variegates out of that bunch. Time will tell!

I bet Marty could nail this down to a T!

It's complicated, Jeff, and nobody knows all the causes of variegation. In clivias, longitudinal variegation is the result of cytoplasmic inheritance of mutated chloroplasts, leading to chloroplastic chimerism in the offspring. Some other plants inherit variegation in the same way -- but there are many types of variegation in different plants, and I dunno whether it's the same in Adeniums or not. Also, I suspect that seed size may make a difference. Clivia seeds are quite large, so there is room for many chloroplasts (some mutated, some not) -- while small seeds may not have enough room for both mutated and normal chloroplasts. That part is just my theory!

Here is a link that might be useful: cytoplasmic inheritance

Doc that is just too complicated for my pea-sized brain to work with, as is most everything. I just figured since Marty is the propogation genius on GW that she could be a big help.

That's why I didn't go into all of that the first time around. ;-)

In English -- In plants, pigment (chlorophyll) is produced in specialized organelles called chloroplasts. These chloroplasts are in the "cytoplasm" (the main body) of the plant cells, not in the plant's nucleus. Now, normally we think of traits as being inherited strictly through the genes in the nuclei of the parent cells. However, the chloroplasts are inherited from the mother plants when mom forms the seeds. So, if Mom is variegated (has both normal and mutated chloroplasts) then she may pass both types of chloroplasts on to the kids. If Mom passes only normal chloroplasts, then the babies will be normal. And if Mom passes only mutated chloroplasts, then the babies will be albino. If Mom passes on both types, then the babies will be variegated.

Taa daa. ;-)

BUT this is not the way all variegation happens. Variegation is quite sneaky and complicated -- and that's one of the reasons I find it so interesting!

I would love to have some seedlings, varigated or not. I've been dithering about whether to pay for clivia at Logees.
I grew up in Los Angeles and we had a lot of clivia. By the time I got old enough to notice, they were blooming. They were the basic orange ones. My dad would dig them up every few years and separate them and take half of them to the nursery and trade them for roses.
I remember as kid helping my mom take the ripe seeds off the plants and push them into the soil.
In addition to the memories, I love the shape of the plant and I know it does well in shade.
Don't know what you want in trade. Maybe some of the February Gold daffodils? Or some glass windchimes? I'll be making those. Took a stained glass class and loved it. Will have lots of glass stuff at the swap -- my practice pieces.

Hiya Laura!

I love stained glass. We'll figure out something. And for heaven's sake, don't pay Logee's prices whatever you do!