Family: Amaryllidaceae
Common Name: Kaffir Lily

Suitable for growing in a shady corner or under a tree in frost-free gardens, or in an intermediate greenhouse or conservatory where frosts occur, these brightly coloured South African natives produce clusters of tubular flowers in the winter, spring or summer. They grow from fleshy, bulb-like roots and have attractive, evergreen, strap-shaped leaves.

Species

C. miniata, to 45 cm (18 in), can be grown indoors and flowers best when it is pot hound. However, it is most useful as an understorey plant under trees where soil is often dry and filled with roots. Once established, it spreads despite the tough conditions. It produces orange-red flowers in umbels of twelve to twenty. Some clear yellow forms are now appearing in nurseries.

C. nobilis, Cape clivia, grows to 45 cm (18 in), with longer, rather pendulous, late spring umbels, the tubular flowers coloured orange and tipped with green. It is less often cultivated than C. miniata.

Cultivation

Under glass, grow in pots of soil-based potting compost and allow plants to become pot bound as this increases their flowering. They like bright light. Water regularly in summer but considerably reduce watering in winter. Propagate by division in the spring.

Climate

Zone 10.