I have this Clivia growing in a tree for about 4 years now. I started this experiment with a 6 month old Clivia seedling. The seedling was placed in a position where the tree made 3 branches about 600mm from the ground. I mixed some compost and clay to place over the small roots to settle it. The compost and clay has been washed out by water long ago already but some loose bark from the tree was collected and settled on the roots which I think supplies some nutrition to the plant with 13 leaves now. The plant is somewhat stunted due to the complex elements of nature in this case but I still think that it has done extremely well with the neglect. These plants are really amazing.
I have only foliar fed this plant with liquid fertilizer about 4 times since it was planted in the tree. It is watered by the automatic sprinkler system in summer that splashes water on the tree branch and the water then runs down the loose bark to roll over the plant and root system. Winter rain also supplies water to this plant. I was hoping that this seedling will produce flowers for me just to fulfill the experiment for me and this year it did. Here are a few photos of the plant taken about a year ago.
I was watering indoor plants with a little fertilizer mixed in it one morning last week. Once done I had about 300ml of this fertilizer mix left over and it struck me that my Clivia in the tree has not received any fertilizer for months now. When I arrived at this plant in the tree I got the surprise of my life. There was this Clivia pushing a flower and the scape was already about 200mm high. Here are a few photos which I unfortunately had to take into the sun.
Look at the roots that are always open like this
I will post photos again when the flowers open soon.
Note the Tilandsias in the top of the very first photo. This tree belongs them them too.
