CLIVIA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Chairman: Chris Vlok, PO Box 99583, Garsfontein 0060,Tel H +27 12 998 5942, e-mail: vlokac@wol.co.za

Secretary: Lena van der Merwe, PO Box 74868, Lynnwood Ridge, 0040,Tel & Fax +27 12 804 8892, e-mail: cliviasoc@mweb.co.za

Vice-Chairman: John van der Linde, 1 Wheelan Str., Newlands, 7700Tel & Fax +27 12 671 4535. e-mail: vandal@iafrica.com

Treasurer: Bossie de Kock, PO Box 38539, Garsfontein, 0042,Tel +27 12 998 3620, e-mail: bossiedekock@absamail.co.za

Of fice Bearer: Ken Smith, 593 Hawkesbury Rd., Winmalee, NSW 2777, Australia.Tel +61 2 47543287. E- mail: cliviasmith@hotmail.com

REPRESENTATIVES OF CONSTITUENT CLIVIA CLUBS

Cape: Claude Felber t, Felici ty Weeden, Ger t WieseEastern Province: Willie le Roux, Charl CoetzeeNor thern: Lena van der Merwe, Peter Lamber t, Bossie de KockKwaZulu-Natal: Sean Chubb

REPRESENTATIVES OF OVERSEAS MEMBERS

Keith Hammet t. 488C Don Buck Rd, Massey, Auckland 8,New Zealand. Tel +64 9 833-9453. E-mail: khammet t@clear.net.nzMichael Morri, P.O. Box 192, Union City, Michigan 49094 USA.Direct enquiries to Michael at ei ther tel. (517) 741-4769 orE-mail: MorriGardens@cbpu.comKen Smith. 593 Hawkesbury Rd., Winmalee, NSW 2777, Australia. Tel+61 2 47543287. E-mail: cliviasmith@hotmail.comAar t van Voorst. Frederick Hendriklaan 49, Hillegom, TE 2181,Netherlands. Tel: +31 252529679; email: a.v.voorst@freeler.nl

OTHER OVERSEAS CONTACT PERSONS FOR MEMBERSHIPAPPLICATION

United Kingdom Dr Hamish Sloan, 40 Wendan Road, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 7AF, England, UK.Tel: 044 1635 47417; e-mail: Hamish.sloan@virgin.net

(Continued on inside back cover)

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ContentsCLIVIA SOCIETY COMMITTEE MEMBERS Inside front coverEDITORIAL – Meg Har t 22004 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE CLIVIA SOCIETY 2

A. Synopsis of proceedings of the Annual General meeting held on 5 June 2004 - Chris Vlok. 2

B. Chairman's Repor t - Chris Vlok 5C. Repor t of the Standards and Judging Commit tee - Roger Dixon 9

JOHN WINTER - CITATION FOR HONORARY MEMBERSHIP OF THECLIVIA SOCIETY - SEAN CHUBB 10RESEARCH GRANT AWARD - Prof. Wijnand J Swar t 12PROGRESS REPORT ON THE PRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF CLIVIAMIRABILIS SEEDLNGS FOR SALE TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC - John Winter 13TRIBUTE TO FRANS GERBER - Ammie Grobler & Cobus Roos 14STORIES BEHIND THE COVER PHOTOGRAPHS -- John van der Linde 14CORRESPONDENCE

Pollination by moths?- Roger Fisher 18Window shopping - Jennifer du Plessis 19Saunders 'flava' - Roger Fisher 19

SOME EARLY NAMES ASSOCIATED WITH CLIVIA: (7) — THE SAUNDERS FAMILY— John van der Linde 20

CLIVIA CLUBS AND INTEREST GROUPS 21EASTERN PROVINCE CLIVIA CLUB - Willie le Roux 21

Donation of Clivia plants 21Oom Fred relocates 21New secretary 21

NORTHERN CLIVIA CLUB 22Some Clivia breeding in Nor th America - Sakkie Nel 22

LOWVELD INTEREST GROUP - Cobus Roos 222004 CLIVIA SHOWS 262005 CLIVIA SYMPOSIUM AT HUNTINGTON BOTANIC GARDENS

— Harold Koopowitz 26FOR SALE 27BEGINNER'S LUCK - Meg Har t 28ON THE COMPOST HEAP - Meg Har t 28

Views expressed in the newslet ter are not necessarily those of the Commit tee and the CliviaSociety.

The present newslet ter has a great variety ofar ticles which should satisfy the tastes ofour many and varied readers and enthusi-asts. The Annual General Meeting newsalways features prominently at this time ofthe year and members are enlightened as towhat took place on 5 June 2004. JohnWinter was awarded honorary status of theSociety at the AGM and the citation bearstestimony to his contribution to the conser-vation of the genus Clivia. Clivia Clubs andSocieties from other par ts of the world growfrom strength to strength and domestically asimilar pat tern is evident.

The fanfare given to Clivia mirabilis twoyears ago has been taken a step fur ther andthese developments are described by JohnWinter. At one stage the editor thought thepresent newslet ter would be a rather thincontribution so i t was most gratifying whenRoger Fisher and Jennifer du Plessis sup-plied let ters. John van der Linde makes hisusual interesting contributions on the 'Stories

behind the cover photographs' and givesinsight into the contributions of the Nor thCoast Saunders family. The former intro-duces us to many of our successful showgrowers and tells us how they obtained theirplants and what breeding methods they useto establish bet ter varieties.

Clubs and interest groups have also beenbusy and repor t their feedback. Jim Shields,a prominent grower of clivia from Indianavisi ted South Africa and gave a talk to theNor thern Clivia Club about growing clivia insome areas of the United States. Showdates are repeated in this issue. For thoseprepared to travel to the USA, HaroldKoopowitz of fers a general invitation toat tend the Clivia Symposium at theHuntington Botanic gardens nex t year.

May there be no severe frosts this winter andmay the flowering season bring many beau-tiful and exciting blooms

Editor.

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Editorial

2004 Annual GeneralMeeting of the Clivia Society

A. Synopsis of proceedings of the AnnualGeneral Meeting held on 5 June 2004.

1 Mat ters arising from the minutes. JohnWinter assured the meeting that theClivia Society will be informed as towhen Clivia mirabilis plants will becomeavailable. Plants will be allocated on apercentage basis to local and overseasapplicants. Names will be selected ran-

domly. There will be approx imately1500 saleable seedlings available.Plants will be sold bare-rooted. It isplanned to adver tise the seedlings byAugust 2004 and this will be donethrough the Clivia Society Newslet terand the web page of the NBI. So farthere is no response (from Nor thernCape Nature Conser vation) on therequest to make seed available to over-

seas people. John Winter will take upthe possibili ty of making pollen avail-able with the authori ties.At the meeting i t was suggested that theprice should be in the order of R200,00per seedling, R25,00 per seed andpollen at R400,00 per five pollen sacs.The meeting agreed that the CliviaSociety should send a let ter to NCNCregarding co-operation with the distri-bution of Clivia mirabilis plant materialand informing them about the activi tiesof the Clivia Society and af filiated clubs.

2 Honorary membership. Mr. SeanChubb's proposal that Mr. John Winterbe awarded honorary membership ofthe Clivia Society was unanimouslyaccepted at the meeting. The Chairmancongratulated John and presented himwi th a framed cer tificate. Johnexpressed his sincere grati tude for thehonour bestowed on him by the CliviaSociety.

3 Financial repor t: Bossie de Kock • The Societ y had a net operating

income of R33 312.00 " Membership numbers showed an

increase of 109.• Income received from publications

exceeded the budget figure withR31 183.00

The following proposals were put forwardand approved:

• To establish a special account (star tingbalance of R15 000) for the future pub-lication of the list of registered Cliviacultivars.

• To reprint 1,000 copies of Yearbook 3and to also make Yearbooks 1 to 5available on CD.

• To include in the budget for 2005 anamount of R10 500 as a provision topublish a booklet - Guide to Clivia

Standards and Judging.• To maintain the existing membership

fees for 2005.

4 Other repor ts• 2006 Clivia Conference in Pretoria:

Peter Lamber t enlightened the meetingon the activi ties of the organizing com-mit tee. The conference will be pre-ceded by a conference (in Cape TownSouth Africa) of the International BulbSociety. The prospects are promisingto get stamps depicting Clivias issuedin 2006.

• Yearbook: John van der Linde. Anef for t is required from all to sellYearbooks. Willie le Roux thankedJohn van der Linde and his commit teeon behalf of all members and Clubs fortheir ef for ts in producing the annualshowcase of the Society.

• Clivia Society Photographic competi-tion. John van der Linde pointed outthat few members took par t in thiscompeti tion compared to the numberof photographs published on the E-group. The Chairperson requestedJohn to thank Claude Felber t on behalfof the Clivia Society for the ini tiativeshown.

• Newslet ter: In her repor t Meg Har t hasindicated that 2004/2005 will be herlast term as editor of the newslet ter.Ger t Wiese said that Meg Har t hasdone an excellent job and propose thatshe should be thanked for a job welldone.

• Research Commit tee: H Robber tse.The commit tee received five applica-tions for research funding. It wasdecided to suppor t the application(Disease causing organisms associat-ed with Clivia species in South Africaand their control.) of Prof. Swar t ofFree State University. The Cape Clivia Club propose that the

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Clivia Society should pay for researchinitiated by clubs should i t appear thatthe research is to the benefi t of thebroader Clivia community. The meet-ing decided that the Clivia Societycouldn't commit i tself to paying forsuch research. However, such re-quests and new research proposalsshould be submit ted to the ResearchCommit tee via the Clivia Society forconsideration.

• Public Relations: Cobus Roos. A com-mit tee of three plus Cobus as conven-er has been established for the “FindingOprah” project. Details regarding own-ership of plants will not be made avail-able to the other commit tee membersbefore the final decision has beenmade. This will ensure that the selec-tion process is done in a fair manner.The closing date for entries isSeptember 29th, 2004, at 12h00. Thefinal decision will be taken at a meetingin Cape Town (of fices of “OMagazine”) on October 1st, 2004.

• Registration of genus Clivia: K Smith.The Cape Clivia Club expressed con-cern about the possible proliferation ofClivia names. Roger Dixon, suppor tedby Willie le Roux, pointed out thatplants should be evaluated againststandards and only then be put up forregistration. Cobus Roos mentionedthat we should not forget that beauty isin the eye of the beholder.

• Web Site: Chris Vlok (See chairman'srepor t). An appeal is made to clubs toappoint people to upload photographsof club shows onto the Clivia Societywebsite.

• Standards and Judging: Roger Dixon -see full repor t elsewhere in thisnewslet ter. One of the problems Rogerencounters is in get ting basic informa-tion such as the range of colour of theflowers of Clivia and how to describeClivia plants. The guidelines document

is still in i ts embryonic stage - pleasesubmit your comments/contributionsto him. The aim is to produce a pock-et sized guide. John van der Lindethanked Roger and pointed out thatwhat he has done is really excitingstuf f. He pointed out that i t is theresponsibili ty of the Clubs/members tomake this project work.

• Chairman's repor t: C Vlok. See fullrepor t elsewhere in this newslet ter.

5 Election/Appointment of of fice bearers.The following nominations have beenreceived and approved:

Chairperson: Chris VlokVice-Chairperson: John van der LindeTreasurer: Bossie de KockSecretary: Lena van der MerweAdditional Member: Ken Smith

6 Election/Appointment of members forsub-commit tees

Newslet ter: Meg Har t and Roger DixonWeb Site: Roger Dixon, Chris Vlok, Williele Roux, Riel Löt ter, Johan Schoombeeand Cobus RoosYearbook: John van der Linde, RogerDixon, Claude Felber t and Dr. DaveMcDonaldResearch: Mick Dower, HannesRobber tse, Aar t van VoorstRegistration of genus Clivia: Ken Smith,Joan Sadie, Peter Lamber t and Willie leRouxPublic Relations: Cobus Roos, GideonBotha and Marleen BilasStandards and Judging commit tee:Roger Dixon, Keith Hammet t, Ken Smith,Ian Coates, Jim Shields, Charl Coetzee,Felici ty Weeden, Mick Dower, AmmieGrobler and Koos Geldenhuys.

7 Honoraria. The meeting approved hono-raria of R 2 000,00 to both the secretary

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and treasurer.8 The Clivia Society in a changing arena -

future strategiesThe chairman outlined the backgroundto this point. From the following discus-sion i t became clear that some dele-gates are in favour of maintaining thestatus quo while others suppor t arethinking of the function and structureof the Clivia Society. The chairman is ofthe opinion that:

• the Clivia Society should always havean address located in South Africa.

• a bot tom up approach is essential.Clubs/societies should remainautonomous and be allowed to developor maintain a unique character.

• any change should be done with cir-cumspection. Should changes berequired, overseas clubs/societiesshould be par t of the process from dayone.

• provision should always be made forindividual Clivia enthusiasts not af filiat-ed to a par ticular local or national clubor society.

The meeting approved the proposal namelythat the Clivia Society should draw up a dis-cussion document that can be circulated forcomments

9 A let ter was received from the Nor thernClivia Club in which they of fer to hostthe 2005 Annual General meeting.

B. Chairman's Report

Dear members of the Clivia Society,

Thank you for at tending this meeting. Someof you have traveled more than a 1 000 kmto be here today. Some of you were, in away perhaps, not supposed to be here today.Oom Ger t, i t is a privilege to have you with

us. Your fighting spiri t and dedication toClivia is a lesson for all of us. Al though OomPat Gore does not serve on the CliviaSociety I think he is the only person presenttoday who has at tended all Clivia Club orClivia Society AGM's. Welcome to new del-egates who have been nominated by theirclubs to serve on the Clivia Society andthank you to the KwaZulu/Natal Clivia Clubfor hosting this meeting.

We are indeed privileged to say, “It was avery good year” when reflecting on the activ-i ties of the Society over the past thir teenmonths. Credit should go to those at cluband interest group level who through theirenthusiasm and unselfish dedication create amilieu in which the Society and af filiatedclubs can thrive.

There were several highlights. Yes, the CliviaSociety cannot be credited with all theachievements and ini tiatives, but pleaseallow me to boast about what our Clivia fam-ily has achieved.

1. During 2003 Clivia Clubs and individualsin South Africa staged 10 shows andexhibitions visi ted by li terally thousandsof visi tors. Our overseas Clivia enthusi-asts were also instrumental in organis-ing Clivia exhibitions in New Zealand,Australia and the USA. Dif fusing Cliviaorganisations are steadily making theirmark on the world and South Africanmaps (Yes, I'm a Geographer).

2. We thanked 'Mr. Yearbook' at the 2003AGM for his huge contribution in pro-ducing a series of Yearbooks that aresought af ter internationally. At thatstage Clivia 5 was still in production. Ayear later we can rei terate that MickDower retired from the editorial com-mit tee on a high - Yearbook 5 wasindeed the proverbial cherry on the top.Thanks Mick.

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3. The newslet ters were again of a highstandard and published in time. Thankyou to all who have contributed to thenewslet ters by submit ting ar ticles andphotographs for the cover. We owe MegHar t (and I think Graeme) a salute forcherishing this baby of ours for 10years. In her repor t tabled at the 2003AGM Meg wrote “the Society shouldconsider finding new blood as mytenure approaches ten years”. Aschairperson I accept full responsibili tyfor (conveniently) forget ting thisrequest.

4. The Cape Clivia Club gave us the “CliviaColour Char t” — a long overdue cheapand easy-to-use reference tool todescribe Clivia colours. They also tookinitiative by star ting Cape News/KaapseNuus, a club newslet ter which is alsopublished on the Clivia Society website.It is great reading and I hope otherClubs will soon follow their example.

5. We are all looking forward to Yearbook6. It seems that John van der Linde, thenew chairman of the editorial commit-tee, has every thing under control andwe can expect the yearbook to be pub-lished well in advance of the annualshows. A new and apparently very suc-cessful ini tiative that the editorial com-mit tee introduced was a photographiccompeti tion in order to at tract photo-graphs for the yearbook and newslet tercovers. Thank you John, Claude andRoger for nur turing this impor tant win-dow of the Clivia Society.

6. The research commit tee received fourproposals from South African universi-ties in response to the invitation to sub-mit proposals on the topics identified bythe commit tee. It was decided to sup-por t the proposal of Prof W Swar t (Free

State Universi ty). The topic to beresearched is Disease-causing organ-isms associated with Clivia species inSouth Africa and their control.

7. In collaboration with the Nor thern CliviaClub the Society prepared and submit-ted a por t folio and application to com-memorate Clivia on South Africanstamps in 2006, the year of our nex tconference. The ini tial response wasvery positive.

8. The Clivia Society website went onlinein December 2003. A lot of hard workand many late night hours went into theproject. A word of thanks and appreci-ation to Roger Dixon. I do not knowhow I would have managed without hiskeen and capable assistance. Yes, thewebsite is “complete”, but i t is only thestar t. We still need to activate thesearch facili ty and make i t possible fora wider group of dedicated people toplace photographs in the photo gallery.In 2003 i t was rather embarrassing thatvery few photographs of our showswere posted via the electronic forums. Itrust that in 2004 the Clivia Society andthe Clivia Clubs, will cooperate so thatphotographs can be uploaded within 24hours of judging. Thank you to CobusRoos who is taking care of updating theevents page.

9. At the 2003 Annual General Meetingconcern was expressed regarding thelack of progress on the development ofShow and Judging Standards. RogerDixon, the chairperson of this commit-tee operated in a vacuum since very li t-tle cooperation was received fromappointed club representatives. I wassomewhat concerned at one stage.For tunately, Roger had to read a paperin New Zealand during March 2004.

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Over the Easter weekend Roger andKeith Hammet t brainstormed the con-cept and produced a document that hasalready been described as a “monu-mental” ef for t. On behalf of the CliviaSociety, I urge clubs and especiallytheir judges, to cri tically evaluate andcomment in a constructive manner onthe content of the draf t.

10. At the 2003 Annual General Meeting theSociety was requested to reach out toother Clivia organisations, especiallythose in Japan and China. Because ofthe language barrier this appeared to bea rather tall order. However, a very pos-itive development was the subsequentestablishment of the International CliviaGroup. This group consists ofspokespersons of the Clivia Society(and consti tuent clubs), the NewZealand Clivia Club, the Nor th AmericanClivia Society as well as the CliviaSociety of Australia. We meet bi-monthly in cyber space and discussClivia mat ters of mutual interest in afrank and open manner.

11. We were approached by Ms. JaneRaphaely, the editor in chief of “O: TheOprah Winfrey Magazine”, to name aClivia af ter Ms. Winfrey who turned 50earlier this year. For tunately we had aPublic Relations Of ficer to whom wecould delegate this request. CobusRoos is making good progress put tingstructures and procedures in placeregarding the evaluation of entries.

12. There was re-af firmation by theInternational Society for Hor ticulturalScience of the Clivia Society as theInternational Cul tivar RegistrationAuthori ty for the genus Clivia with KenSmith as Registrar.

We had our “ups” but we also had our“downs”.

• Some members in the United Kingdomindicated that they did not receive allfour newslet ters of 2003. We correct-ed the situation by posting (in March)replacement copies together wi thNewslet ter 1 of 2004. Guess what?Af ter seven weeks the posted newslet-ters had not reached their destinations.It also appeared that members in othercountries did not receive newslet ter1/2004. We depleted our entire stockby reposting during the last week ofMay. Two days later we began receiv-ing e-mails indicating that the newslet-ters posted in March had eventuallyreached our members. The reason Iam saying this, is because we havereached a stage whereby electronicdistribution to our overseas membersshould be seriously considered.

• In January 2004 I posted a draf t copyof a let ter addressed to the Nor thernCape Depar tment of NatureConservation to members of the CliviaSociety. The main objective of the let-ter was to enquire about the futurerelease of Clivia mirabilis material. Thelet ter also hinted/suggested that theClivia Society could play a role in anadvisory capacity as well as promot-ing the community project associatedwith Clivia mirabilis. The let ter trig-gered an emotionally fierce debate. Asmall minori ty was totally against theidea of approaching Nor thern CapeNature Conser vation (NCNC). Ireferred the mat ter to the ManagementCommit tee. The lat ter body was of theopinion that the wish of the majori tyshould be honoured. The Managementcommit tee also recommended (aswas the opinion of the group of dele-gates in favour of approaching NCNC)that the let ter should be rephrased.

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This has been done but the let ter hasnot yet been posted.

It would not have been possible to ef ficient-ly manage the Clivia Society without theassistance of a team of dedicated individu-als. The following persons were invaluablein servicing our overseas members:

• Michael Jeans. For many years Mikehas played an impor tant role in collect-ing UK membership fees on our behalf.He was also instrumental in creating apermanent market for our yearbooks atBotanical Gardens in the Uni tedKingdom. Mike has sadly decided tocall i t a day. However, being loyal tothe Clivia Society, Mike also assistedus in finding a successor in Dr. HamishSloan.

• Mike Morri, who collects membershipfees in the USA.

• Ken Smith, our Australian representa-tive, not only collects membershipfees, but is also responsible for theprinting and distribution of our newslet-ters in Australia.

Thank you to John van der Linde and KenSmith for the suppor t you have given me.The big guns doing the dir ty work are Lenavan der Merwe and Bossie de Kock. Theywalk the proverbial ex tra mile for the Societyand i ts members. We are grateful for theimpressive sales figures of Clivia Societypublications as shown in the financial state-ments. Without their dedicated ef for ts topromote sales, i t would not have been pos-sible. Mick Dower and Ian Brown have beenprominent members of the Clivia Societysince day one. Both of them have decided tomake room for new blood. I hope we canstill tap into their vast exper tise when a year-book, a consti tutional or a financial crisisarises.

We look forward to the coming year and

hope that i t will be as successful and pro-ductive as 2003/04 has been. We wish youthe best of luck with your annual shows andyour club activi ties. And finally, today weare going to exchange ideas and opinions onThe Clivia Society in a changing arena -future strategies. Allow me to subtly influ-ence you. When suggesting and debatingfuture strategies or changes we should askourselves the simple question: Is i t good forClivia?

Chris Vlok

C. Report of the Standards and JudgingCommit tee

At the last AGM in Por t Elizabeth a requestwas made that a preliminary guide on stan-dards and judging cri teria be ready for theSeptember (southern hemisphere) floweringseason. For various reasons, this was notreached, not least being the fact that a pointof depar ture had to be defined first.

Ini tially all available show schedules werecirculated for comment and suggestions. Noresponse was received. I then compiled ahef ty document that was circulated to allmembers of the commit tee in which theentire spectrum of judging, judging training,standards and showing was covered, andrequested input. This time I received someinput, and as a result we went back tobasics. I enlisted the help of additional peo-ple to consider the basics of Clivia, such ascolour, size and leaf shape. Over a period ofsome months measurements were madeand discussions took place via email. As aresult of this we finally came to agreementas to what we should cover first, which wasbasic defini tions of terms and the defini tionof standards.

In April 2004 I spent the Easter weekendwith Keith Hammet t and we compiled thebasis of a guide to standards and judging,using the discussions and inputs over the

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past year. The introduction to this guidegives a good summary of what has beenachieved:

“Cultural dif ferences have resulted in twomain directions in the breeding of Clivia.One direction focuses on the foliage ofplants, while the other focuses on the plantand i ts inflorescences. Within these dif fer-ent breeding directions a large diversity ofcharacteristics and their combinations hasbeen achieved already. It is the aim of thisbooklet to document, define and quantify thisvariation. This will facili tate communicationand understanding between Clivia enthusi-asts worldwide, which, in turn, will lead tofur ther development of the plant in cultiva-tion.

The booklet also presents guidelines for theexhibition of Clivia plants so that both enthu-siasts and the general public alike can enjoythe beauty of fered by the genus. In thisguide, Clivia is defined as being inclusive of

all i ts species and hybrids. Clivia will beexhibited primarily as whole plants grown incontainers with the objective of show judg-ing being to determine that which is mostaesthetically pleasing. It is recognized thatplants vary in both dimension and propor-tion, and for this reason a set of categorieshas been established to enable the compila-tion of show schedules.”

It is my hope that once this guide has beenfinalised, which should be in the near future,i t will be published and distributed to allmembers.

In conclusion, I would par ticularly like tothank those members of the commit tee andthose who were co-opted by me for theirinput, especially Keith Hammet t, Ian Coates,Jim Shields, Ken Smith, John van der Lindeand Ammie Grobler.

Roger Dixon

24th May 2004

John Winter has had a long and successfulcareer promoting indigenous plants in gener-al and Clivia in par ticular.

John was Curator of Kirstenbosch from1978 to 1998. Apar t from all his other tasks,he was also personally responsible for col-lecting and breeding a number of plant gen-era, including Proteaceae, Erica, Disa,Agapanthus, Asparagus Fern and Clivia. AnErica, an Aloe and a Leucospermum havebeen named af ter him and he bred the Disahybrid 'Kirstenbosch Pride'.

In 1998 he was promoted to Deputy Directorof the National Botanical Insti tute and

became responsible for the management ofall the National Botanical Gardens in SouthAfrica until he retired in 2001.

Nick Primich founded the Clivia Club inJohannesburg in 1991. Although not for-mally involved with the Club at the time, heworked together with Graham Duncan, Ger tWiese and Christo Löt ter in the Cape onimproving the forms of C. miniata whichwere available to them. In so doing theybecame well known to the other Clivia breed-ers throughout the country.

In 1994 John at tended the first InternationalConference of the Clivia Club in Pretoria,

John Winter — citation for honararymembership of the Clivia Society

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joined the Club and in September 1995 hearranged an informal meeting of Clivia enthu-siasts at Kirstenbosch. This led to the forma-tion of a Cape Province Branch of the CliviaClub, which became a consti tuent Club ofthe Clivia Society.

John has been the Cape Clivia Club'sChairman since i ts inception.

In 2001/2002 he became the first Chairmanof the Clivia Society and had the dif ficul t taskof watching over the transition from a cen-tralised management of Clivia af fairs underthe Clivia Club, to the individual Clubs get tingused to managing their own af fairs under theumbrella of the Clivia Society. He completedthat task very professionally and successful-ly

John was aware that there were very fewClivia clones at Kirstenbosch, that vir tuallynone of them had been collected in the habi-tat and that there were very few specimensin any of the Herbaria in South Africa - thisdespite i t's being endemic to South Africa.

Therefore, in 1995 he went to the EasternCape and the Transkei to locate Clivia in thehabitat and access them for a living collec-tion at Kirstenbosch.

As expected, C. nobilis were found at a num-ber of locations from near Por t Alfred up tothe Kei River. Some of those locations werealready in Herbarium records. However,John was especially interested in followingup verbal repor ts that C. miniata grew, notonly in Kwazulu-Natal, but also in theTranskei.

John searched for and found them near theKei River and then ventured into the Transkeii tself, which was considered by many at thattime to be foolhardy. There he found new C.miniata forms, such as 'Apple Blossom',which are now secured at Kirstenbosch.

John has returned to the Eastern Cape andTranskei and ex tended his searches into

KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland and Mpumalanga.These searches have established the bound-aries of all the Clivia species in the wild,which he updates as new colonies are dis-covered.

He has repor ted on these in papers, whichhe read at the 1998 and 2002 InternationalClivia Conferences, and in various ar ticlesthat he has writ ten for the Yearbooks.

Dr John Rourke later joined John on his trips,with the result that many of the Clivia gaps inthe Compton Herbarium have now beenfilled.

Despi te his retirement as Curator ofKirstenbosch and later as Deputy Director ofthe National Botanical Insti tute, Johnremained responsible for the habitat collec-tion of Clivia at Kirstenbosch. He has buil tup that collection to be the most comprehen-sive in the country. As the plants have mul-tiplied, he has distributed them among theother National Botanical Gardens so that theycan be shared and enjoyed by all.

This has become more impor tant as Clivia inthe wild become increasingly threatened byagriculture and by ethno medicine and useas good-luck charms. To combat this Johnalso set up a scheme to encourage the dona-tion of Clivia seed to Kirstenbosch where i thas been grown on and made available to thepublic and nurseries at give away prices.

Previously the development of new Cliviaclones, especially of C. miniata, had beenrestricted by a very limited gene pool fromKwaZulu-Natal. John's accession of thesenew forms from the wild has expanded thatgene pool phenomenally. He has ensuredthat all Clivia lovers will benefi t from this bymaking seed and seedlings of these plantspublicly available through the NationalBotanical Insti tute.

Oorlogskloof, where C. mirabilis was found,falls under the jurisdiction of the Nor thern

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Conservation Depar tment. When theNational Botanical Insti tute at Kirstenboschidentified this new clivia species, the NBIagreed to germinate and grow the first seedcollected by the Depar tment and to train peo-ple at Nieuwoudtville to grow these plants asa community project. John was entrustedwith implementing this agreement. He isalso responsible to the Depar tment for themarketing of those first seedlings.

Alongside all these of ficial responsibili ties,John has continued to look af ter the wellbeing and success of the Clivia Society byensuring that the Cape Clivia Club has thrivedand nur tured the development of the Eastern

Cape Clivia Club and the Border and GardenRoute Interest Groups.

As if that was not enough, John has contin-ued his own successful breeding of new andprize-winning cul tivars (including ShowChampions and Reserve Champions), andhas always helped other members at work-shops and individually, and by his generosi-ty, to grow and breed bet ter Clivia.

Sean Chubb.

Citation received from KwaZulu-Natal CliviaClub, Seconded by Eastern Province CliviaClub.

I would like to express my sincere apprecia-tion to the Clivia Society for the award offunding for conducting research in accor-dance with the research proposal I submit-ted to the society in August 2003. I trust thatthis will lay the foundation for fur ther andmore goal directed research per taining toheal th management of cul tivated Cliviaspecies.

As stated in my proposal i t is crucial thatgrowers/members of the Clivia Society areaware of the oppor tunity that has now aris-en for a detailed survey of Clivia diseases. Itis therefore vi tal that they par ticipate bysending samples to our laboratory for diag-nostic evaluation and inclusion into thenational database which will now be devel-oped.

I look forward to working with the CliviaSociety in what promises to be an enlighten-ing and rewarding learning experience for allpar ties concerned.

Sincerely,

Prof. Wijnand J. Swar tNew Crop Pathology ProgrammeDepar tment of Plant Sciences :Faculty of Natural and Agricultural SciencesFree State UniversityPO Box 339, BLOEMFONTEIN 9300, SOUTHAFRICAswar twj.sci@mail.uovs.ac.za051-401-2383 (of fice)072-460-3415 (mobile)

Research grant award

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A new species of Clivia, named Cliviamirabilis by Dr John Rourke, was discoveredin the Oorlogskloof Nature Reser ve inFebruary 2001. The then Nor thern CapeDepar tment of Agriculture, Land Reform,Environment and Conservation (i.e. TheDepar tments of Agricul ture and NatureConservation), established a project whichwould provide employment and contributetowards the uplif tment of the local commu-nity as well as conserving this new speciesof Clivia.

The project aims at producing seedlings ofClivia mirabilis and making these available tothe general public, thus discouraging Cliviaenthusiasts from at tempting to obtain plantsfrom the natural population in theOorlogskloof Nature Reserve.

Kirstenbosch Botanic Garden agreed to sup-por t this project by germinating seed andgrowing on seedlings of Clivia mirabilis to asaleable size, and training staf f of theNieuwoudtville Bulk Project of Conservationin germinating seed, growing seedlings andfinally marketing and despatching theseedlings.

Seed was harvested in February 2003 andKirstenbosch germinated the seed and isgrowing the seedlings on. The growingmedium used consists of two par ts of milledpine bark and one par t of milled pine nee-

dles. An organic fer tilizer (Bounce Back) isadded to the mix ture. As pine needles arenot always readily available, compost maybe substi tuted. The seedlings have beengrown in seed trays and have progressedwell. Since germination the seedlings havebeen fed monthly with Biogrow. Someseedlings have been slower growing thanothers, but by and large the bulk of the plantswill be of a saleable size by January 2005.

To provide greater depth for root develop-ment, the seedlings are presently beingrepot ted into 18cm pots, planting three to apot. Fresh growing medium will stimulatefur ther growth and root development.

The price for the seedlings has not yet beenfinalised by the Depar tment of Finance of theNor thern Cape. It is anticipated that the sell-ing price will be in the region of R150,00 perseedling.

The Nor thern Cape Depar tment applied forPlant Breeders Rights (PBR) with a view toproviding addi tional protection for Cliviamiralibis as well as generating royalties forplants sold which will contribute to the devel-opment of the community. However theapplication was not successful.

John Winter for Kirstenbosch Botanic GardenJune 2004

Progress report on the production anddevelopment of Clivia mirabilis seedlngs for

sale to the general public

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To most South African members of the CliviaSociety, and especially the members of theNor thern Clivia Club, this will be a very famil-iar name. I was spurred on by someone whohad a close relationship with Oom Frans ona professional level, and from their sharedlove for the genus Clivia, Oom AmmieGrobler, to write this piece.

It was with a great deal of sadness that weall learned about Oom Frans' passing. Eventhough the sword of his disease was alwayspresent, he remained joy ful and content withwhatever the Father had in stall for him.There is a saying - "There is no greater gif tthan when you give of yourself". This wasthe man Frans Gerber. To him it came natu-rally to give of himself. He had time foreveryone, and everyone was equal in hiseyes. Yesterday is but a memory, tomorrow

we might never see, that is why they calltoday the present, for i t is a gif t we must alllive to the fullest. Frans Gerber lived his lifelike this. Every new day was a gif t to him,and he shared his joy of living with every-one.

Although our hear ts are filled with sorrowabout his passing, we can all live in anticipa-tion of the day we will meet with Oom Fransin the life beyond our brief stay on ear th.

With this we say goodbye to a respected,trusted and loved friend. To his family, oursincere condolences. And our grati tude forhis sharing of himself with us.

Cobus Roos

'Oom' means 'Uncle' in Afrikaans and iscommonly used as a term of respect to eld-ers in Afrikaans culture. Editor.

Tribute to Frans Gerber

Stories behind the cover photographs

Erratum: Photograph no 3 on the back coverof the Autumn 2004 Newslet ter (Vol 13 No1) is NOT "Vico Yellow"! This was pointedout to us very quickly by Sir Peter Smithers,writing from Switzerland, where he bred his"Vico Yellow". He has kindly agreed to sendthe Society a recent photograph of "VicoGold" for this year's Yearbook. Mick Dowerhas been asked to consider writing an ar ti-cle, to be published later, which will coverboth the Vico plants and the plant we pic-tured in error. Apologies to Sir Peter and tothe readers we confused!

Winter 2004 - Cover Photographs

Photo No 1: Front Cover

This magnificent plant was awarded firstplace in the 'Yellow Miniata (narrow petal)'class at the 2002 Cape Show. The proudowner is Riel Löt ter who has writ ten as fol-lows: "I first saw this plant in flower in 1994,when visi ting my father, Christo Löt ter. It isone of a selection from a cross that he haddone in 1989, between a plant from JimHolmes (C1) and one from his brother,Wessel Löt ter (C2). One must remember

15

that back then, 15 years ago, yellows werestill as scarce as hen's teeth. Christo wasthen making every at tempt to widen his genepool, and Jim only par ted with his specialplant on condition that Christo shared theresulting seeds with him.

C1 has pale yellow flowers which open wide,whilst C2 is a darker yellow, with petals thatrecurve more, creating a nice full umbel.Christo sowed the seed from this cross andgrew the seedlings on to maturi ty, beforeselecting out those with both the darkest yel-low and most open flowers. For the very firsttime I saw plants with round full heads onsturdy stems.

My father gave me this plant in 1994 - whata present and what a privilege! The dayChristo gives you a seedling, and tells younot to par t with i t, you know you are get tinga very special plant, for he has the abili ty tochoose parent plants that produce winners.All the plants, which my son Jaco and I nowuse in our breeding, originally came from myfather. In September 2002, for the first timein the years that I had owned my C1/2, i tcooperated by flowering at just the right timefor the Show. Not only did i t flower in time,but i t also produced two umbels. I could atlast display i t at a Show, as a tribute to myfather. Christo has produced many plantswith similar characteristics, from this C1 xC2 cross. They now feature in the collec-tions of enthusiasts far and wide".

Photo No 2 (Back Cover)

This plant came first in the 'Yellow Miniata(Broad petal)' class at the 2002 Cape Show.It is one of the yellows that have emergedfrom Jim Holmes' breeding programme,which dates back to 1976. Nearly all of Jim'sgenetic material is descended from twoplants. One plant is an of fshoot from a yel-low collected in the Karkloof in the early1900's, handed down in the Tod family. Itflowers in August and is self-sterile, so Jim

had to search around for suitable pollen - inan era when yellows were still rare.

He found the solution by collecting i ts pollen,and then using i t on a yellow belonging to thelate Willie Olivier, when that plant flowered inSeptember. He was able to collect the seedsand went forward from there, repeatedlyinter-crossing and selecting, to develop his'New Dawn' strain. The best plants havelarge round umbels with well over 30 florets.Some produce two umbels at a time (seethis photo). Jim does not know the origin ofthe Olivier plant, which was brought to theCape from Natal around 30 years ago. Iwonder what happened to i t af ter Willie'sdeath?

Jim's plant that we picture here could well berelated to Riel's plant described above (photo1). Note Riel's reference to unusual flower-ing time and a tendency to produce twoumbels at the same time.

Photo No 3

Sean Chubb writes: "The plant pictured wonthe best 'First flowering seedling any colour'at the first South African Championship showhosted by the KZN Clivia Club inPietermaritzburg in 2002. It is a seedlinggrown from seed from a cross between twovery well known Group 2 Yellow clones,namely 'Natal Yellow' and 'Pat's Gold'. Thispar ticular plant is a good example of what isproduced by this cross. The plant was notnamed, as I fel t at the time that i t did notmatch up to a previously named clone ofGroup 2 Yellow, 'First Born' which flowered in2001. The cross between 'Natal Yellow' and'Pat's Gold' has produced many bright andbold yellows with good rich yellow coloura-tion.

Some years ago I was inspired by WesselLöt ter to try to get to the bot tom of Group 2Yellow breeding. Cynthia Giddy distributedthe well- known 'Natal Yellow' which wasfound to produce only orange flowering

seedlings when crossed with almost allother yellows. This led to the belief that onecould not produce yellow flowering of fspringfrom 'Natal Yellow'. Even when 'selfed' i tseemed to produce only orange seedlings.This was subsequently found to be because'Natal Yellow' is very receptive to foreignpollen but does not self-pollinate. This wasdiscovered only by self-pollination in a con-trolled environment.

Some named clones of Group 2 Yellows are:

Natal Yellow — distributed by CynthiaGiddy. Thought to be wild collected. Of fsetsvery rapidly, flowers late in the season, flo-rets open lime green but fade to yellow.Formerly misnamed 'Natal Yellow B'. This isa fairly common clone and photos can befound in Yearbook '98 pg.35 no.25, as wellas in The Clivia Review '98.

Cynthia's Best — grown by Cynthia Giddybut not widely distributed since i t does notof fset readily. Cynthia's second clone and isthought to be wild collected. Formerly mis-named 'Natal Yellow A'. It is a rare clone,pictured in The Clivia Review '98.

Dwesa Yellow — Distributed ini tially by EricDodds of Pioneer nursery in Gonubie. Wildcollected in the Dwesa forest of the Transkei.Has a fairly low floret count on the umbel.Has well shaped florets with light yellowflowers. Of fsets fairly well.

Smith's Yellow — Owned by Brian Tarr ofthe National Botanical Gardens inPietermaritzburg. Thought to be wild col-lected. Formerly misnamed 'Transkei Yellow'and 'Tsolo Yellow'. Very similar to 'DwesaYellow' as far as the flower goes but seemsto have a dif ferent growth habit.

Pat's Gold — Owned by Pat Gore. Originallybought from Kirstenbosch as an unpigment-ed yellow seedling. Probably the best of allthe Group 2 Yellows. A large robust plantwhich does not of fset readily.

Group 2 Yellows may produce red spots orsmudges on the flower as they mature, aredamaged or become wet. This is the giveaway sign of a Group 2 Yellow. The miscon-ception that Goup 2 Yellows only produceorange flowering seedlings when selfed isalso not true as 'Dwesa Yellow' does producea few unpigmented seedlings when selfed.The crossing of two Group 2 yellows willresult in 100% unpigmented yellow-flower-ing seedlings.

Of the Group 2 Yellows, 'Natal Yellow' and'Pat's Gold' have the richest colour and havebeen used ex tensively by myself to breedrich yellow colored Clivia. 'Natal Yellow'opens with a green hue but fades to yellowas the flower matures. This at tribute is beingconcentrated on in my breeding. I am tryingto produce yellows which will retain thegreen hue in the mature flower [as opposedto a green centre]. Group 2 Yellows are stilla rari ty and only make up a very small per-centage of the total Yellow population. In myopinion Group 2 Yellows are well wor thgrowing and have many good quali ties aboutthem.

'Natal Yellow' was used as the pod parent fora cross with 'Naude's Peach'. All seedlingsproduced were pigmented ; a disappoint-ment ini tially … until these began to flower.The results were the most interesting pastelswith large white, yellow or green throats,which develop a pink blush throughout eachflower as i t matures."

Our comment on 'Pat's Gold': his plantsounds as though i t could be descendedfrom one of two plants found flowering in1988 at "The Wilds", in Johannesburg byRod Saunders, then of the NBI and now of"Silverhill Seeds". He sent them down toCape Town where they now form par t of theClivia collection at Kirstenbosch. GrahamDuncan described them as But ter Yellow.Seedlings were subsequently made available

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to the public - and Pat Gore was at the rightplace at the right time to get one.

Photo no. 4

This at tractive plant grown and owned byNorman Weitz of the Nor thern Clivia Club isa cross between a nobilis and a yellow mini-ata. He tells us that the leaves have the char-acteristics of a nobilis, with the grey centralstreak on the leaves. He has self pollinatedsome flowers and put pollen from a yellowminiata onto the rest. Interestingly, all theseedlings have unpigmented stems.

Norman is a keen collector and breeder ofinterspecifics.

Photo no. 5

This is a photo of THE famous 'Noyce'sSunburst', a magnificent plant, I think all willagree. John Winter writes:

"Michael Noyce was a member of the Boardof Trustees of the NBI who lived in Kloof, notfar inland from Durban. He donated five C.miniata var. ci trina plants to Kirstenbosch.When they flowered, Graham Duncan, thehor ticulturalist in charge of the bulb collec-tion named one of them 'Noyce's Sunburst'.Its inflorescens is very similar to that of'Kirstenbosch Yellow', but i t is a more vigor-

ous plant. It also produces a much largercrop of seed. The objective in breeding with'Noyce's Sunburst' is to produce of fspringwhich will resemble i t when in flower, bemore vigorous, and also be good seed pro-ducers."

I wonder how much money has been raisedfor the NBI over the years from the sale of,for example, seedlings from the cross'Kirstenbosch Supreme' x 'Noyce'sSunburst'?

Photo No 6

Ian Brown, the owner of this plant, wri tes,"Not much is known about the history of thisplant. It came second in the 'Narrow petalyellow' class at the Cape Show in 2002.Ger t Wiese gave me a sucker a few yearsback and he tells me he obtained i t as a fair-ly large plant from someone who had boughti t in Hermanus. Christo Löt ter or Les Brownprobably bred i t. The flower is fairly ordi-nary but has a good shape and the overallbalance of the plant gives i t a cer tain charm.It also produces twins as in this photo."

Could this plant, with i ts twinning tendency,be related to the plants in photos 1 and 2?

John van der Linde

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Pollination by moths?

I have recently joined the Nor thern CliviaClub al though I have had contact with cliviaenthusiasts for some years. The destructionwrought by last year's frost refocused myat tention on my "ordinary" - to quote a friend- clivias I'd grown from seed but neglected tothe ex tent that they have not yet bloomed.Hopefully they'll do so this year af ter someintensive TLC.

I recently visi ted the nurseries of Ber tieGuillaume and Ar thri Wessels and boughtsome twenty plants in bloom. I arrived backin the late evening in Pretoria and carriedthem indoors. I noticed the strong azalea-like per fume as I moved them, the first timeI'd been aware of the phenomenon al thoughI'd read about i t with regard to yellows.These clivia are all in the broad leaf, orange-red range al though most have clear deepyellow throats.

Later the same night I noticed a large mothon them and, having by now developed a

pathological horror of the creatures near myplants' af ter the blight of this years amaryliscaterpillars, I was determined to catch andremove i t. However I noticed i t flying intothe flowers and not under the leaves. I real-ized i t was af ter the nectar, having a feedingfrenzy.

I passed on the information to two of my col-leagues and here are their comments:

Prof Hannes Robber tse wrote: "Dankie virdie inligting. Ek het lankal vermoed datclivias deur mot te bestuif word omdat hulleveral in die aand 'n sagte geur het - selfs diegewone oranje." [Thanks for the information.I have long suspected that moths pollinateclivias, par ticularly in the evening when theyhave a gentle fragrance - even the ordinaryoranges].

Prof Clarke Scholtz (entomologist) wrote:"Its a common species of Trichoplusia(Noctuidae). No known records feeding onClivia. Adults at tracted to flowers but i tsounds as if the Clivias have a special at trac-

Correspondence

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tion, perhaps some pheromone-like chemi-cal."

Of course many questions now arise:

• These Clivia were blooming out of seasonand out of habitat. Which then are theseasonal moths that are the pollinators?

• Is the flower shape and per fume a specif-ic evolutionary adaptation for moth polli-nation?

• What are the pheromones associatedwith the azalea-like per fume?

• Do moths also pollinate azaleas?• Does the yellow colouring help at tract

moths?• Is the yellow associated with the per-

fume?• Does anybody know?

Roger Fisher.

'Window shopping'

Few people, I think, upon reaching the age of60 are lef t without regrets about past deci-sions made.

Dr. John Rourke's contribution about TheBearded Man's clivia population (Clivia 5,page 78) revived not only good memories,but also a sincere regret at not having star t-ed my clivia collection years ago.

When my husband was forest manager atShannon quite a few years back, he took me'window shopping' at both sightings on TheBearded Man. He was not only a dedicatedforester, but an ardent conservationist aswell, so I was allowed to take only a fewplants of each species for my garden. Hedid, however, collect a few of each speciesfor the Botanical Gardens at Nelspruit, as didMr. D Jackson, manager prior to him.

I had at that stage a very large collection ofazaleas but have as recently as four yearsago become an ardent clivia admirer and amtrying to ex tend my very meagre collection.

To think, af ter our marriage when we werestationed in the then Transkei, at Wilo, thatwe must have been "surrounded" by cliviasand, later, stationed in Swaziland, when agili-ty posed no problems, we once came uponthis most spectacular beautiful view - cliviasin full bloom.

Today I am still 'window shopping' what withall the beautiful pictures of clivias appearingin the Clivia Yearbook. I can still dreamthough, can't I?

Jennifer du PlessisBox 803Umtentweni4235"The Bearded Man is a 1445m high peak onthe Swaziland-Mpumalanga border, cappedby a patch of Afromontane evergreen forest…". (Rourke, J 2003. Natural interspecificshybrids in C. miniata x C. caulescens hybridsfrom Mpumalanga, Clivia 5, p78)I think most of us who have passed the firstflush of youth wish we had star ted our cliviacollections when we were younger.However, some oppor tunities may havebeen missed, but we must make the most ofthe time which lies ahead and enjoy ourplants. How very privileged you were toobserve when you did so many clivia grow-ing in the wild. If you have access to a com-puter and e-mail it is well wor thwhile joiningthe Clivia E-group where, almost daily, col-lectors all over the world display their bestblooms. There are also several websiteswith magnificent pictures on them. Editor.Saunders 'flava'

When I joined the Nor thern Clivia Club Ibought a set of back copies of the Clivia Clubnewslet ters. If I recall correctly i t was in theJuly 1998 edition that Cynthia Giddy's yel-lows were discussed. Koopowitz writes inhis book Clivia' that a description of a yellowclivia was published in The Gardeners'

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Chronicle (p235) in 1899, which, becausethe description does not match KatherineSaunders' painting, might point to a secondyellow variety having reached England at thesame time.

I have recently acquired a copy of ThePaintings of Katherine Saunders. Botanicaland Biographical Notes and Explanations byEmeritus Prof. A. Bayer published by theTongaat Group in 1979. Plate 20 is of the'Clivia miniata var. flava' and her note says,"Yellow Imantophyllum from Eshowe, flowerwithering af ter being two days in a post bag.Most lovely, delicate, peculiar shade of yel-low, not orange, but like straw colour mixedwith pink, quite inimitable by me. October8th 1893. This drawing has been sent to

Kew with the bulb by Maud". Her paintingcer tainly doesn't show the subtleties ofcolour she describes. The representationalone should therefore not be used for draw-ing conclusions.

I read that amongst Giddy's yellows wereof fsets of both the Saunders' plants and anancestor of Vico yellow. Are these not thenrelated?

Roger Fisher.Yes, these may well be related. CynthiaGiddy had several yellow varieties in her col-lection. Have our members any commentsto make? See ar ticle below for other inter-esting anecdotes about the Saunders' fami-ly. Editor.Some early names associated with Clivia:

(7) the Saunders familyThe story of the early discovery of a yellowClivia miniata has become par t of clivia folk-lore; one or two plants were found, around1888, in the Entumeni Forest, Eshowe, andgrown by Sir Michael Osborne and CharlesSaunders, then resident magistrate. He senta plant, with a flower, to his mother KatharineSaunders, a sugar farmer's wife cum botani-cal collector and ar tist, living at Tongaat.She did a watercolour painting, which wassent, with a plant, to Kew in England, whereit was duly named Clivia Miniata var.ci trina.But she can be remembered for much more.

The 30-year-old Katharine Saunders arrivedin Durban from England in 1854 with herhusband James - and her grand piano. Theyset tled at Tongaat Estate, nor th of Durban,where he was first manager and then propri-etor. Within a year of her arrival, she hadbegun painting wild flowers. Her interest inplants led to correspondence with the pow-

ers-that-be at Kew, to whom she sent paint-ings and dried plant specimens. Shebelieved that the naming of a plant in oneshonour was the finest accolade a collectorcould at tain.

As early as 1877 this strong-willed andpushy li t tle Victorian lady persuaded theCurator of the Durban Botanic Gardens toapproach Kew and do this for her - henceHaemanthus katherinae! [now known asScadoxus multiflorus subspecies katharinae]Having her (misspelled!) first name recog-nized like this was not enough for her, so shelater wrote directly to Kew asking that a plantbe "named in such a manner as to immor tal-ize myself and my son by giving the genusour surname". Today no less than five plantsbear the species name 'Saundersiae' to com-memorate her and her son. She died in1901.

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Charles Saunders worked his way up the lad-der in the Natal Civil Service, becomingResident Commissioner and Chief Magistrateof Zululand before retiring in 1909, with aknighthood, to his farm at Melmoth. Thebotanist who wrote a description of the yel-low clivia in Flowering Plants of SouthernAfrica, 1931 edition, interviewed him. Hesaid that a number of of fshoots had beendistributed from his original plant, and alsothat plants had been grown from seed. "Thefact that all plants raised from seed have yel-low flowers indicates that we are dealingwith a pure strain", said the writer in F.P.S.A.

Brian Tarr has writ ten (Clivia 2) that SirCharles Saunders' daughter, Mrs. M.M.KRobinson, inheri ted his plants on his death in1935 and grew them in Pietermaritzburguntil at least the mid-1960's.

What of the father, James Saunders: Shouldwe remember him for any thing to do withClivias? Well, he was known as the "Tongaat

Slasher ". Significantly, his wife Katharine didnot seek to have his name commemoratedbotanically! He was one of those pioneeringset tlers who cleared away the natural vege-tation (including clivia habitat?) to make wayfor sugarcane plantations. So let us cliviapeople rather remember his plant-mindedwife and son. James Saunders is of courseotherwise remembered for the heri tage hehas lef t in Tongaat Sugar, one of SouthAfrica's premier sugar companies, and forthe contributions that he and his descen-dants have made to so many other aspectsof life in South Africa.

ReferencesNatal, the Garden Colony, by DonaldMcCrackenBotanical Exploration of Southern Africa, byGunn and CoddFlowering Plants of Southern Africa (1931)John van der Linde

EASTERN PROVINCE CLIVIA CLUB

Donation of Clivia plants

During the course of 2003 our Commit teedecided to launch an ongoing donation proj-ect to promote Clivia in our province. Ourmembers were requested to identify a suit-able insti tution, retirement village, or organi-zation to which we could donate Clivias to beplanted in their garden.

At our AGM in February 2004, Elize Larsontold us that the Aurora Insti tution for handi-capped persons in Por t Elizabeth had openedan additional complex on a proper ty withlots of shady trees on i t and that theGoverning Body was very eager to establish

a garden underneath the trees. Thus on themorning of 9 March, Charl Coetzee and Iwent on our way to the Aurora Centre with a'bakkie' [lorry] load of adult Clivia plants gen-erously donated by Dennis Todkill, WellandCowley, Charl Coetzee, Andrè Cali tz andGideon Botha. Paddy, the lady in charge ofthe centre was completely in the clouds.With hands waving and expressions of grat-i tude she took us to where she wanted toplant the Clivia. With the able assistance ofMarietjie, Aurora inmates and Charl, and withample compost donated by Danie Lategan ofC.S.M. Organics, the for ty plants were soontransferred into the garden. We hope to haveat least two of these donations per year.

We were treated to freshly baked sausage

Clivia clubs and interest groups

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rolls and tea and were invited to see theClivia when they are in flower.

Willie Le Roux

Oom Fred Relocates

Oom Fred Gibello, founder member of theEastern Province Clivia Club has decided tomove to Melkbosstrand in the Western Cape.His at tendance at our meetings and shows,willingness to share his experience of manyyears with all, regular donations of plants(not only to the Club but also to many mem-bers) and of course his friendly smile, willsurely be missed by us all.

Thank you very much Oom Fred for yourcontribution in building our Club. We wishyou and Hilda the best of health and happyyears ahead in your new home and may theGood Lord watch over you.

Willie and the E.P. Commit tee.

New secretary

Cynthia Le Roux is our new Secretary. Hercontact par ticulars are Tel / Fax 041 - 3603480 e-mail girly@absamail.co.za.

NORTHERN CLIVIA CLUB

Some Clivia breeding in North America

During their visi t to South Africa, Mr. & Mrs.Jim Shields at tended a luncheon at the Drosrestaurant in Menlo Park, Pretoria on 16 May2004, and Jim delivered a presentation toabout 50 members of the Nor thern CliviaClub.

He described the conditions under which hegrows clivias in Indiana and those of threeother big growers in the United States whomhe visi ted in March 2004. He showed pic-tures of some of the trophy plants from theircollections. He first tended to his own'lovelies' for the summer season before flyingout to South Africa with his wife for amonth's holiday.

Jim Shields' clivias in Indiana on LakeMichigan

In summer in Indiana there are normallywarm humid days as well as nights. Theaf ternoon temperatures are around 30º Cand nights are at about 18º C. There areoccasional thunderstorms but very rarelydroughts.

Clivias are moved outdoors in May when thedanger of frost is past. The plants are keptunder high or dappled shade, because some-times the temperature may reach 40º C insummer. Mr. Shields prefers using darkgreen shade net ting with 70 % sun block butthinks that 50 % may work well. Keeping theplants too dark may substantially hinder theirgrowth.

In winter temperatures drop well below 0º Cand al though very rarely, even to minus 28ºC! During February temperatures rangebetween -15 and -25º C. Weeks may passwith the temperature below 0º C. Because i tis likely to become ex tremely cold in thegreen house clivias need to be protected.Some grower's only solution is to bring theplants into their homes where i t is probablytoo warm and too dark! The ambient lightlevels are very low in winter with very dimwinter sunlight.

During the winter plants in the greenhouseare kept in cool temperatures ranging from5º C to 15º C. They are also kept bone dryfor four weeks (one month). Af ter a monthof thirst starvation they star t watering verycautiously and sparingly. A month latergrowers add liquid feeding to the water.

The Amaryllis Lily borer is non-existent inthe USA and they suf fer mostly at the hands(mouths) of the mealy bug!

Visit to David Jay Conway of Santa Barbarain California

Santa Barbara (on the Pacific ocean) is nor thof Los Angeles on the west coast of the

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United States.

David is now retired but when younger usedto be a landscape architect and the Directorof Parks for Santa Barbara. He is a premiergrower of named clivias and probably ownsthe reddest 'reds' in the world. His breeds ofSabrine Delphine and Ramona (par ticolored)may be seen in Koopovitz's book on Clivia.['Par ticolored' is a term used by DavidConway for plants where flowers open pale,then darken. It of ten happens with pinks andcreams and the flowers are sometimesblotched with another colour.] David onlygrows and breeds with the miniata speciesof clivias.

Doris - A dark orange-red.

Sabrine Delphine - Magnificent -flower vir-

tually completely red with a li t tle white spotat the tips of petals.

Jean Delphine - Completely dark red, onlyanther and stigma is yellow, not as deep ared as Sabrine Delphine.

Tessa - Peach pastel - quite beautiful withsmallish tulip type flowers.

Ellexa - An apricot-coloured clivia, very sim-ilar to Tessa but flowers are bigger. Bothexcellent plants and flowers.

Gillian - A new one and much lighter versionof the previous two. Very light transparentyellow. Nice big round full posy of flowers.

Ramona - One of David's par ticoloredplants. Ramona was made famous byKoopovitz's Clivia book. Top half of the

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flower is orange, bot tom half is yellow. Tipsof flowers are white.

Isabella is a magnificent flower of pink yel-low light orange pastel. To say that this plantstands out in the greenhouse when in flowerputs i t mildly! The bi-tone (two or more tintsper petal) af fect on each petal when the newflower opens is wonder ful. As the USA hasno Clivia judges or shows one can appreci-ate that they struggle with all the par ticol-oreds, subtle pastels and color variations.However, they do use the Cape Clivia Clubcolour char t. Mr. Shields stressed yet againthe point of how dif ficul t i t sometimes is toobtain true colours in pictures.

Hannah - A beautiful delicate subtle par ticol-ored clivia

Free love - Three red flowers -three whiteflowers and two still closed white flowers allon the same stem, buds almost white beforeopening .The 'white' open flowers have alight lemon- lime colour. It defini tely looks asif "something might have mixed in" with thisplant and i t will be very interesting to see ifthe second flowers will be the same.

Visit to James Comstock of Los Angeles

James is a much younger man than DavidConway and being a landscape architectpractices as a professional landscaper. As abachelor he has saved himself many familybrawls about a cer tain clivia plant and all i t'sof fspring! His interest in clivias is purely ahobby. He never sells or trades for love ormoney so be warned! James might be will-ing to trade, but then defini tely on the basisof "what you have" and not on the basis of"what you want"!

Comstock Red Seedling - the real McCoy asfar as red is concerned! This is the best redversion I have laid my eyes on. The cameradoes not lie because the photo with the colorchar t shows that the flower quali t y isbetween the last two reds on the char t.

Peach - A very nice quali ty flower.

Proteus - A very unique plant in James's col-lection - highlighted spots on the flower,almost white.

Peach and Picotee - Bright dark yellow fromProteus.

Peach Seedling - A lovely peach fromProteus.

Painted nails -Very, very pret ty highly pat-terned flowers.

Visit to Joe Solomone of Monterey, southof San Francisco on the Pacific Ocean

Mr. Solomone is 80 years young and keepshis plants under 1.2 hectares (3 acres) ofplastic glass. He owns a broad leaf plantwith 16 cm wide leaves.

Joe founded the Monterey Bay Nursery andsold i t 15 years ago. He is a very charmingman and his wife Barbara and daughter helpto make his hobby of growing the mostbeautiful flower in the world a truly rewardingexperience. The following are some specialclivias in his collection:

Salmon peach Seedling - Quite a beautifulpastel.

Peach Seedling 1 - Golden deep yellow -lovely.

Peach Seedling 2 - A bright sunlight peach.

New directions for Clivia in the USA

• The general excitement about pastel col-ors is really hot ting up.

• The broader meaning of the color peach.• Multi-colored or pat terned flowers.• Future possibili ties include Multipetals,

Poly tepals and all the Chinese special ties.

Sakkie NelMember of the Nor thern Clivia ClubLynnwood, PretoriaMay 30, 2004

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LOWVELD CLIVIA INTEREST GROUP

The Lowveld Clivia Interest Group wasestablished in November 2003 at the inaugu-ral meeting held at the Lowveld BotanicalGardens in Nelspruit. The formation of theInterest Group would not have been possiblewithout the valued suppor t and guidance ofMr. Tino Ferrero and Dr. Peter Lamber t of theNor thern Clivia Club with whom we are af fil-iated.

Nineteen members joined the group inNovember 2003 and membership steadilyincreased to thir ty-six members by April2004. A few well-known long time cliviagrowers in the Lowveld have also joined thegroup. Our first show is being planned withmuch enthusiasm and some trepidation for11 and 12 September 2004. A LowveldClivia emblem is currently in the planningstage and should be launched within the nex tfew months.

A decision was taken at the last generalmeeting to draw up a code of conduct for thegroup with respect to upholding standardsand the good name of all clivia growers. Allmembers will be expected to sign andacknowledge the code. Please forwardcomments and suggestions on this topic toeither Ian Radmore or Daan Dekker. Shouldyou visi t the Lowveld or Mpumalanga pleasedo not hesitate to pay us a visi t.

Clivia greetings to all.

Daan Dekker (Chairperson) Tel (013) 750-2774 Cell 084 581 0368

Ian Radmore (Secretary) Tel (013) 751-2051 Cell 082 379 0405

E-mail address:- ian@nelvet1.agric.za

Postal address: P O Box 1146, White River,1240

28 August: Annual Exhibi tion/Show –Waterberg Boslelieklub

4 & 5 September: Annual Show – Nor thernClivia Club

4 & 5 OR 11 & 12 September: Annual show- KwaZulu-Natal Clivia Club

9 to 12 September: Annual Show/Exhibition– Soutpansberg Interest Group

11 September: Annual Clivia Show –Nor thern KwaZulu-Natal

11 September: Annual Show/Exhibition –Free State Interest Group

2004 Clivia shows in South Africa18 September: Mini show at Kloof -KwaZulu-Natal Clivia Club

18 & 19 September: Annual Show – MetroInterest Group

18 & 19 September: Annual Show – CapeClivia Club

25 & 26 September: Annual Show – EasternProvince Clivia Club

2 & 3 October: Annual Show –Garden RouteClivia Interest Group

9 & 10 October: Annual Exhibition - NewZealand Clivia Club

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Hello to all the Clivia enthusiasts out there:Good News and Bad News. The Good newsis that we will be holding the nex t HuntingtonSymposium at the world famous HuntingtonBotanic Gardens on the last weekend inMarch 2005. Bad news is that this falls onan Easter weekend. Sorry, but the weekendprior is already taken by the Bonsai societyand their show. Doing i t earlier or later thanthose two weekends means missing thepeak of the flowering season.

The Huntington, the Nor th American CliviaSociety and possibly one of the local BulbSocieties will sponsor the meeting. Wewould like to hold a judged Clivia show and Iinvite judges from other regions of the worldto come and judge here. At this time we are

2005 Clivia symposium at Huntingtontrying to guesstimate the number of at ten-dees.

1. If you would like to present a paper orposter also let me know together with theti tle of your presentation.

2. If you plan on at tending please also let meknow and estimate the number in yourpar ty.

3. If you are prepared to judge the show letme know too.

4. If you want to reserve space to sell seedsor plants I need to know that also

E-mail the above information back to me atthe following address paph@pcmagic.net

Cheers

Harold Koopowitz

For SaleAdvertisements. Tarif fs for adver tising inthe Clivia Society Newslet ter:

Smalls (1 to 6 lines): R25.00Smalls (7 to 10 lines): R30.00Quar ter page: R70.00Half page: R125.00Full Page: R250.00A5 separate page inser t: R600.00A4 separate page inser t: R800.00(You will be sent an account from the treas-urer for the appropriate amount.)

From the Clivia Society:

Overseas members can order back volumecopies of the yearbooks and newslet ters (since1992) via the society. South African membersshould approach their local branches. We must

point out that i t is dif ficul t to quote a fixed pricewithout knowing the method of payment anddelivery. We suggest you contact Bossie deKock (the treasurer) via e-mail at:bossiedekock@absamail.co.za or by fax at+27 12 804 8892 and list the i tems you areinterested in as well as the name of the coun-try in which you reside. Bossie would thenbe in a position to suggest the most eco-nomical option. Australian, UK and USAmembers are reminded that they can ordervia Ken Smith, Dr Hamish Sloan and MichaelMorri respectively see covers for contactdetail. Also note that fur ther discounts canbe negotiated with Bossie for orders exceed-ing 10 of a specific i tem. The following i temsare available:

27

Item Approximate price (US $)Yearbook 5 15Yearbook 4 10Yearbook 3 Out of stockYearbook 2 6*Yearbook 1 6*Volumes 1(1992) to 11 (2002) of newsletters 10 per volume*Hints on growing Clivia – hard copy 5*Hints on growing Clivia – electronic PDF format 3*International membership list – hard copy 3*International membership list – electronic format No charge** Including postage and banking charges if paid by credit card. Contact Bossie de Kock for

quotation re payments made by cheque.

With the shows approaching in the SouthernHemisphere i t is time for those enthusiastswho plan to show their clivias to star tpreparing. Lower leaves which are damagedshould be discarded now so that the whitisharea exposed on the leaf bases has time toturn green before showing.

If scapes star t growing in one directiontowards light, turn plants in pots regularly sothat the scape grows upright. This will alsoprevent flowers from facing in one direction.

Water should be meagre at this time withlight applications of fer tilizer a li t tle later on.

Meg Har t.

Beginner’s luck

Private advertisements:Clivia species, interspecifics and specialities.Par ticipate in our coordinated impor ts andexpor ts of seeds and plants - Asia, ANZ, N. Am.& Eu. Connie Abel, Pretoria, +27-12-3616406 orjcabel@absamail.co.zaYellow Nogqaza strains from R15 to R120.Orange from R1 to R6 for mature plants. Deliveryanywhere. SOUTH AFRICAN CLIVIA PLANTATION,Box 855, Hil ton 3245. Call 082- 955 5433.Clivia miniata. Seed R100 per kilogram. Year oldplants R2 each. Roly Strachan, Box 57, Highflats3306 or Tel. (039) 835 0085 evenings only.Clivia miniata F1 (yellow x orange), “pinks” andpastels, flowering size @ R12. Clivia miniata yel-lows, flowering size @ R150. C. miniata ‘Stef’sPer fume’ @ R18,00. Ex tra for postage and pack-aging. Dries Bester, PO Box 75, Levubu 0929.Tel/Fax (015) 583 0299.

Swamp gardenii and miniata seed andseedlings available from various Natal andTranskei locations. Phone Andrew (039) 3135024a/h or cell 082 7845401.Clivia miniata: Creams, yellows, peaches, apri-cots, reds, pastels and polychromes. Seed,seedlings, mature plants and of fsets of stockplants bred and selected over 25 years. ContactBing Wiese, Pretoria tel/fa x (012) 460 6382 toview.Thurlow Flora: We have on of fer a large varietyof carefully bred seedlings and mature plants forsale. We specialize in pastel colours, oddities,species and original wild collected and namedclones of clivia. Mail order and visi tors welcome.For our latest plant list please contact Sean andTerri Chubb. Tel: 031 7811978 e-mail:terric@iafrica.com We also have available a fewhundred dif ferent named daylily clones.

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Lily Borer repor ts from the editor's studywhere strange things have been happening.While doing the proofreading and spellingcheck Lily Borer and Mealy Bug (Graeme

Har t) were horrified when funny namesstar ted appearing. A number of these couldbe repor ted but Lily Borer was horrifiedwhen the names Bessie Guillotine, AnthraxWeasels, Cobs Roast, Bossier de Kick, Apar tWorst and Both Balas inadver tentlyappeared! Knowing no members with thesenames, the spell check programme wasrerun to find that they were intended forBer tie Guillaume, Ar thri Wessels, CobusRoos, Bossie de Kock, Aar t van Voorst andBotha Bilas. If any others have been mis-spelled, sincere apologies are of fered.

Lily Borer (Bri thys pancratii).

CONTACT DETAILS FOR CLIVIA CLUBS AND INTEREST GROUPS

Cape Clivia Club: Joy Woodward (Secretary). PO Box 53219, Kenilwor th, 7745.Tel (h) +27 21 671 7384, Tel (w) +27 21 799 8768, Fax +27 21797 0002. E-mail: capeclivia@ibox.co.za orwoodward@nbict.nbi.ac.za

Eastern Province Willie le Roux (Chairperson) PO Box 19292, Linton Grange, Por tClivia Club: Elizabeth, 6015. Tel & Fax: +27 41-360 3480.

E-mail: girly@absamail.co.zaKwaZulu-Natal Clivia Club: Sean Chubb (Chairperson). Thurlow Farm, PO Box 126, Eston,

3740. Tel & Fax: +27 31 781 1978. E-mail: terric@iafrica.comNor thern Clivia Club: Lena van der Merwe (Secretary). PO Box 74868, Lynnwood Ridge,

0040. Tel & Fax: +27 12 804 8892. E-mail: nclivia@mweb.co.zaBorder Interest Group: Stella van Gass (Chairperson). 16 Greenan Street, Berea, East

London, 5241. Tel +27 43 721 2964Free State Clivia: Hennie van der Mescht, 18 Met tam Street, Fichardt Park,

Bloemfontein, 9322. Tel. +27 51 522 9530.Fax: +27 51 436 4340. E-mail: vandermescht@absamail.co.za

Garden Route Gerrie Bri ts (Chairperson). Tel: +27 44 8028420.Clivia Interest Group: Fax: +27 44 8707550. Cell: 082 7385 842.

E-mail Gerrie.Bri ts@za.sabmiller.comMetro Group: Glynn Middlewick (Chairperson). 2 Willow Road, Nor thclif f, 2195.

Tel +27 11 476 1463. E-mail: gcmidd@mweb.co.zaNor thern KZN: Dries Olivier. PO Box 8783, Newcastle, 2940.

Tel +27 83 264 6230. Fax: +27 34 318 6667.E-mail: dries@sawa.co.za

Waterberg Boslelieklub: An Jacobs. PO Box 3893, Nylstroom, 0510.Tel & Fax: +27 14 717 2674. E-mail: johanan@pop.co.za

Zoutpansberg: Anneke Stroebel (Secretary). PO Box 1712, Louis Trichardt, 0920.Tel +27 83 326 6073. Fax +27 15 516 5710.E-mail: alstroebel@lantic.co.za

Lowveld interest group: Ian Radmore (Secretary). PO Box 1146, White River, 1240Tel: +27 13 751 2051. E-mail: ian@nelvet1.agric.za

EDITOR OF NEWSLETTERMeg Har t. 70 The Valley Road, Park town, Johannesburg, 2193.Tel & Fax +27 11 646 9392, E-mail: har tmh@mweb.co.za

PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICERCobus Roos. Tel 082 416 6178, E-mail: cobusroos@telkomsa.net