Some years ago when I lived in New York a friend gave me a seed head that he had brought back form a visit to the Botanical gardens in Malta. There were 15 seeds and I managed to get around 11 of them to germinate. I learned that they take maybe 5 years to flower from seed. Well I gave one or two away over the years and ended up with maybe 7 of them plus 2 I had acquired as pups from a friends plant. Then one June two of them flowered for the first time. Here are 2 photo's of one of them. The following May I left New York for Europe and gave my plants to grateful friends, the two plants that had flowered the year before were sending up new flower spikes. Clivia also like to be pot bound, which is to say that they don't like too much room for their roots in the pot. After the flowering period usually around August they can be re-potted in some cases back into the same pot. When they are out of the pot you will notice there are some old roots that are brown and soft and these can be removed quite easily. When this is done you will see that they will pop back into the pot with some fresh soil nicely. I just remembered to tell you that during the flowering period it is a good idea to apply a general feed. As you can see they are a beautiful plant and flower so try growing one yourself, you don't have to grow one from seed. You can of course buy one, they can be a little expensive if at the flowering stage. Older plants grow side plants or pups and these can be removed form the main plant during re-potting, if you have a friend who has an older plant with pups talk them into giving you one, They will also get to the flowering stage in a shorter time. So give it a try. Good luck.
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