Multipetal and Spider Clivias

Multi-tepal f lowers are less common and much sought after. The perianth (outer part of the f lower) of a normal clivia consists of three outer and three inner perianth parts, called tepals. Multi-tepal clivias have four outer and four inner perianth members. An example is ‘Bronze Velvet’ from Utopia Clivias, which resembles a chrysanthemum.

Multi tepals could be either semi or full petalled, where the flower head has 60% or more multi tepal flowers. Flowers which have more than 10 petals are often referred to as many tepals. Multi tepals crossed with one another will give 100% multi seedlings, but used only as a pollen parent will result in 100% orange split for multi tepal. So these seedlings need to be crossed once more with a multi parent to get back to multi tepals. Multi tepal seedpods have a certain shape and look slightly different to normal miniata seedpods.

According to the Clivia Society show rules the multi-tepal category requires that all the flowers, 100 percent, must have more than six tepals present.

Spider type clivias are for the lovers of narrow petal clivias. These come in all colours and have proved to become more popular over the last few years. They do not always breed true and the best option is to cross two spiders with each other. Some of my famous multi petals and spiders in my collection are Super Spider, a giant spider which at the 2010 international auction sold for R4500.

Rosy Posy is a full 100% multi tepal with 10 or more petals on each flower. It has the look of a chrysanthemum flower. The Bronze Velvet range of Multi tepals are all silbings bred from a bronze Multi tepal. The best ones have been selected to line breed with.

A new line we are currently breeding is multi tepal interspecifics. The first of our own breeding started flowering in 2019. These are still very rare and we hope to be able to release some seeds and plants in 2020.

We breed with only our best multi tepals and spiders and have seeds available every season.