Good evening, Kibitzers! I have an awesome friend named Lilas. She recently had to give up singing in my chorus, although she can still sing perfectly well. It's just that, as she approaches the age of 90, she found she had too many annoying health issues to make it reasonable for her to attend all the rehearsals, plus the dancing was getting tough for her. She still keeps up with her other activities, though, and that includes outdoor gardening and keeping potted plants.
A few years ago, she divided a clivia and gave me one of the plants. I didn't know anything about them, but she assured me they weren't any trouble. That is certainly true! The first year I had it was the year my mom died, and that poor plant stayed at my house all alone for a very long time with no one paying the slightest attention to it. When I finally noticed it, the leaves had shriveled up and I was afraid I'd killed it, but I brought it to my dad's and started watering it, and amazingly enough, it grew back and has been vigorous ever since.
What I didn't know was that clivia are Amaryllidaceae, like amaryllis, although they grow from rhizomes instead of bulbs. These plants all come from southern Africa, where they grow on forest floors. They don't want a lot of direct sun, and they expect water to be rather spotty -- in fact, they rot if they stay too wet. They can't winter outdoors in my area, but they like to have a dormant period where they are dry and cool, and in fact, this is what helps them bloom.
So, I parked my clivia on the back porch for the summer, and conditions must have been good without my knowing, because all of a sudden, it bloomed for the first time! Pictures below the orange clivia bud.
I first noticed something was up at the end of August:
So then, I started watching eagerly, until, TA-DA! Great Orange Kosflowers!
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Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with kossacks who are caring and supportive of one another. So bring your stories, jokes, photos, funny pics, music, and interesting videos, as well as links—including quotations—to diaries, news stories, and books that you think this community would appreciate. Readers may notice that most who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but newcomers should not feel excluded. We welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.
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