Over the years, White Flower Farm has been honored to work in partnership with some of the world’s exceptional plant breeders and to be able to offer our customers exclusive and extraordinary treasures. Last year, we partnered with legendary Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA, to offer you Clivia miniata ‘Longwood Debutante.’ This lovely, mildly fragrant, yellow-flowering Clivia is the first named release from Longwood’s renowned breeding program. Customer response was so enthusiastic (the plants sold out quickly) that we’re pleased to be offering four more equally stunning varieties, all recent Longwood introductions.
White Flower Farm’s Director of Horticulture Rob Storm says, “As a company, we have a tradition of offering these special plants – starting around 1995 with Clivia ‘Sir John Thouron,’ a clear, yellow-flowering variety that was named for a renowned Pennsylvania gardener and came to us through Longwood, although it was not part of Longwood’s breeding program.”
Longwood’s Clivia breeding program began in 1976 under the direction of Dr. Robert Armstrong. To read more about this fascinating program, and the patience and time required to breed plants for specific characteristics, visit the Longwood website or, better yet, visit the garden itself.
Vegetative propagation of Clivias is an incredibly slow, and therefore expensive, process, but there is no other way to ensure that the subsequent plants are exact clones. Longwood’s Clivia breeding program is now 40 years old, and the plants you see are its first named releases. “The investment of time put in to get these remarkable plants is amazing and costly,” Rob says. “All of us are fortunate that Longwood has the resources to do this.”
The retail cost of these plants has raised some eyebrows and prompted comments on our Facebook page. It’s important to remember that these Clivia are decades in the making. “From seed germination to the first flowering is an incredible amount of time – years,” Rob explains. “The time and investment required to see the results of the breeding program’s hard work is not small.”
Clivia miniata is a favorite specimen houseplant, and has a well-earned reputation for being rugged and demanding little attention. Plants thrive even in a north window and require little care, growing larger and more impressive with age. These beautiful plants last a lifetime and beyond.
The large pastel blossoms of award-winning Clivia miniata ‘Longwood Sunset’ (shown above) represent a color breakthrough. The overlapping, slightly reflexed petals of each floret are suffused with sunset tones of peach and pink, finished with a fine picotee trim, and arrayed around a golden yellow and white center. The lightly fragrant, individual flowers form large clusters that measure 8-10” and are framed to perfection by dark green leaves.