Longwood Launches New ‘Fireworks’

I am excited to introduce to you a completely new type of Fireworks at Longwood Gardens—Clivia miniata ‘Longwood Fireworks’!

Clivia miniata "Longwood Fireworks'

This is the second introduction from Longwood’s clivia breeding program, which started in 1976. ‘Longwood Fireworks’ boasts a burst of yellow flowers that fills the skies above the foliage. The individual petals of the florets are reflexed and curve backward and the florets are arranged in a perfect sphere, creating an impressive display. The stamens curve and extend beyond the petals. The form and arrangement of the floret give the impression of the petals blowing back and the stamens shooting out to produce an explosion of bloom.

Fireworks & Fountains at Longwood Gardens

Last year, before receiving its name, ‘Longwood Fireworks’ was entered into the North American Clivia Show and won First Place and Best in Division ribbons. Traditionally, the summer skies above Longwood are filled with fireworks that accompany fountain shows and now we have award-winning floral fireworks as well.

You can see Clivia miniata ‘Longwood Fireworks’ in the Conservatory beginning March 17. Last year we released the first plant from our clivia breeding program—Clivia miniata ’Longwood Debutante’, which will also be on display in the Conservatory in March. A limited number of both plants are available for sale in our GardenShop.

Clivia miniata 'Longwood Debutante' in the research greenhouses.

If you are interested in more clivia festivities, don’t miss the North American Clivia Society Show on March 17 & 18 at Longwood Gardens. Clivia enthusiasts from across the country will exhibit their prize plants, and Longwood will be showing plants from our breeding program—including a sneak peek of possible future clivia introductions. Stop by the information table during the show to have your clivia growing questions answered and cast your vote on Saturday for the People’s Choice Award.

If you have a prized clivia at home that will be in bloom on March 17 & 18, please bring it to show off. There will be Novice classes this year for flowering and non-flowering plants, which are open only to those who have never won a Blue Ribbon for a clivia plant. Additionally, you can bring you plant for display in the Enthusiast’s class. In this class, your plant will not be judged, but you can still show it off. I hope to see you and your plant at the Clivia Show!

The 2011 North American Clivia Show at Longwood Gardens

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Clivia in the Classroom

Yellow clivia in the East Conservatory. These plants were pollinated to produce beautiful yellow berries. The berries yielded seeds for the participating students.

This year, Longwood kicked off a program to engage a new generation of clivia enthusiasts! As part of our “Clivia in the Classroom” program, we gave blooming-sized clivia plants and seeds to eight biology and horticulture teachers in area schools. During this school year, the teachers are using the plant materials as a class project where students can get hands-on experience growing and caring for clivias.

The students are being taught how to provide the proper cultural conditions to force their plants into bloom—just in time for the for the North American Clivia Society show, March 17 and 18, 2012, at Longwood Gardens.

The show will feature a special judging division for the students to enter their plants. We can’t wait to see how the students fare with their plants this March!

Each teacher was allowed to select their own plant to enter into the show.

In addition to taking care of the plants in the classroom, students from the participating classes received clivia seeds to take home and nurture year-round. All of the plants being used in the program are yellow-flowered and resulted from Longwood’s 36-year-old clivia breeding program.

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‘Longwood Debutante’ Ready for Debut

Clivia miniata 'Longwood Debutante'

After 35 years of clivia breeding, Longwood Gardens is releasing its first named clivia when the North American Clivia Society holds its International Symposium and Show at Longwood Gardens March 19 and 20, 2011.  Clivia enthusiasts from around the world will be in attendance when ‘Longwood Debutante’ makes her debut into Clivia Society in the elegant Longwood Ballroom.  Scarlet O’Hara would be jealous!

Inside the research greenhouses

Back in 1976 when the breeding program started, clivias were commonly orange. The yellow flowers existing at the time were not impressive and rare, so Longwood decided to initiate a breeding program to produce a superior yellow clivia.  ‘Longwood Debutante’ has achieved the goal of the breeding program with its luminous yellow flowers that rise above the dark green foliage.  Her flowers are slightly fragrant with petals that overlap to produce a beautiful floral display.  This is the first release in a series of Longwood clivia cultivars.

Clivia berries containing seeds

Cliva seeds removed from the berry

Why did it take so long to release the first plant?  Thirty five years is a long time to wait. A good number of current students and employees  at Longwood were not even alive when the program started! One factor that slowed the program was the extended time it takes for a clivia seedling to mature.  Seedlings can take up to eight years to bloom from the time the seed is planted, so patience is needed.  Longwood speeds up the process in our research greenhouses by keeping the seedlings actively growing all year long, rather than allowing them to go dormant in the winter. The trick is to get the seedling to mature quickly—and maturity occurs when the plant produces 13 leaves.  Once the plant has 13 leaves, it is ready to produce a flower.  Then, when you finally have a blooming plant, the plants are slow to multiply.  It can take years for the parent plant to produce offsets. Results are slow in clivia breeding!

While breeding for the superior yellow flower, interesting mutations began to occur.  Both yellow and orange flowers began to exhibit a raised area, or keel, in some petals.  The term “keeling” refers the shape of the keel of the boat. The keeling petals add extra depth and interest to the flowers. We decided that the breeding program would also focus on accentuating the keel, in hopes of producing a multi-petal flower.  The normal number of petals on a clivia flower is six, but if the keel separates from the petals, a flower with nine petals can result.  Keeling flowers are interesting by themselves even if they don’t have extra petals. We now have some potential keeling cultivars in the works in our research greenhouses.

Longwood decided that a perfect venue for the release of ‘Longwood Debutante’ would be at the North American Clivia Society Show and Symposium. We have lined up an international cast of speakers including: Ken Smith from Australia, who manages the clivia registry; James Abel from South Africa, who is an expert on clivia in the wild; Harold Koopowitz, who literally wrote the book on clivia; Jim Comstock, who dazzles with a 3D clivia slide show; and Dr. Robert Armstrong, who started the clivia breeding program at Longwood.

Longwood’s visitors can enjoy the clivia show March 19 & 20 in the Exhibition Hall, as well as a special display of ‘Longwood Debutante’ in front of the Music Room. Everyone can register for the conference—you don’t have to be a member of a Clivia Society.  Conference attendees are invited to a dinner and auction of rare clivia plants on March 19. You can enter your plant into the show, too! This is your chance to show off your clivia plant.  A limited number of ‘Longwood Debutante’ will be available for sale in the Gardens Shop starting on March 20. We will also have orange and yellow bi-colored clivias for sale. You can own your own piece of Longwood history!

Clivia miniata 'Longwood Debutante'

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How to Make Your Clivia a Blooming Winner

One of the most frequently asked questions on growing clivia is “how do I get my clivia to bloom?” This fall, I visited with the Director of the North American Clivia Society and Executive Director of the Delaware Nature Society, Mike Riska, to get his expert advice on clivias. Mike has grown clivia for many years, and has won numerous awards for his plants—both from the Philadelphia Flower Show and from Longwood Gardens. In this video, he shares some pointers on how to get a clivia to bloom, and gave advice on growing and grooming your plants for competitions.

Mike Riska with one of his clivias.

The North American Clivia Society is holding the International Clivia Show and Symposium at Longwood Gardens on March 17–20, 2011. The symposium will feature speakers from South Africa, Australia, the US, plenty of tours, and hopefully, the show will include your plant.  We encourage you to bring your clivia and show it off, and attend the lectures and tours. Don’t be frightened of entering your plant in the show! You have nothing to lose, and hopefully you will get to have some fun and meet some fellow clivia enthusiasts.

A Longwood clivia

Here are some key conditions that are necessary to get your plant to bloom on time for the show next year, or just getting your plant to bloom in general:

• Provide optimal light conditions for the production of flower buds. Mike grows his plants outside for the summer in protected areas.
• While growing outside, Mike fertilizes every two weeks with half strength Miracle Gro 20-20-20.
• Before the first freeze, move your plants indoors.
• Plants should get no water between October 1 and January 22.  It is critical that during this time the plants are chilled at temperatures between 35 and 55 degrees F for a minimum of 5 weeks to initiate bloom. If this cold treatment is not provided, the plants may not bloom until late summer.
• Hold the plants dormant until 8 weeks before show time.
• To bring the plants out of dormancy, begin watering and gradually raise the temperature to 60 degrees F.
• Flower buds should begin to show about two weeks after the temperature is raised.  The appearance of the flower buds signals that you are on track, and need to think about bringing your plant to the North American Clivia Society International Show and Symposium at Longwood Gardens!

For more information and to register for the symposium please visit the Longwood Gardens Website.

The Clivia Show at Longwood Gardens 2010



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Longwood’s First Clivia Show a Success!

On March 13 and 14, 2010, Longwood Gardens hosted its first Clivia Show, complete with a lecture segment. It turned out to be a wet weekend with almost constant rain. The weather, however, did not dampen the festivities. Sweeps of yellow and orange Clivia miniata, exotic blue Himalayan poppies, and hundreds of orchids, creating an Orchid Extravaganza, were tucked safely into Longwood’s five acres of conservatories.  The Clivia Show was nestled into this refuge for horticulture.

A total of 74 plants were entered into the show, which was staged in the Exhibition Hall, around the Fern Floor and in front of the Music Room. A living orchid curtain and stately Australian tree ferns acted as a back drop.  The show included categories for blooming plants, foliage plants, cut umbels, and cut florets.  The entries fell into seventeen different classes within seven divisions of these categories. Ribbons were awarded for 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd places within each class, as well as for best in division and honorable mentions.  The best in show was won by Mike Riska for his Clivia ‘Nancy Marie’.

Best in Show Clivia ‘Nancy Marie’

Visitors came from as far south as Florida and as far north as Massachusetts, with Tom Wells and John Ingram attending all the way from California. Numerous local enthusiasts braved the elements too. Many people were inspired to attend by a feature article on Clivia and Mike Riska, written by Moira Sheredin that appeared in the The News Journal.  Approximately 100 people attended the lectures, which were introduced by Longwood’s director, Paul Redman, and the NACA President Tom Wells. I spoke on the work Longwood is performing with Clivia including breeding, tissue culture, and germination experiments. Mike Riska spoke on the joys of growing Clivia on the east coast.  The lectures were well received and generated a long question and answer session at the conclusion of Mike’s talk. After the lecture segment, guests were invited to attend a tour of Longwood’s production and research areas.  During this tour they had the rare opportunity to see Longwood’s breeding Clivias at peak bloom, with the greenhouse a riot of color and texture.

This year’s Clivia Show was the warm up for the international Clivia event, which will be held at Longwood in 2011. With so much enthusiasm at this year’s event, the 2011 international event is sure to be a great success.  Details about the 2011 event will be posted on both Longwood Gardens’ website as well as the North American Clivia Society’s website, as the event draws nearer.

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