Morgan Bay clivia enthusiast Dave Coulson has gone home again this year with the Border Clivia Society show’s best on show award and second place runner-up at the event on October 14.
This is the second consecutive year Coulson has earned these awards and this year’s win is made even more significant given the unending rain that posed challenges for many local growers whose plants were damaged or unable to flower in time for the show.
Coulson, who has 10 years’ experience in clivia growing, said he was under immense pressure before the show waiting for the plants to flower at exactly the right time.
He said: “I was lucky to get the winning plant to flower when it did because too early or too late will not help.
“The rains of the last month were potentially life threatening for the plants because too much water introduces diseases straight into the roots of the plant, so for many it was touch and go in the last weeks before the show.
“Despite the challenges, I trusted in the basics, which is the premise that if you keep the plant happy and healthy it will flower, and that belief has paid off again this year.”
Coulson’s best on show plant was highly regarded by the judges for its unique green hue, full posey, emerald unmarked leaves and clean display.
His plant, a utopia clivia, was on its second flowering at the time of the show, and is around seven years old.
In 2006, the first ever green clivia fetched R32,000 and since then the green colour has remained prized among clivia enthusiasts, with the plant continuing to earn growers and breeders between R2,500 and R7,000.
Show judge from the Gqeberha Clivia Society, Willie Le Roux, commended Coulson on his attention to the plant in terms of appearance, citing this as fundamental towards spreading awareness about clivias and the importance of growing them.
Le Roux said: “We have to have the best flowers on display so that the plants’ beauty can convince the public to become involved in growing and protecting them for the benefit of future generations.
“Currently in the Eastern Cape, the poaching of clivias for muti markets is placing the plant under serious threat. Twenty bags full of clivias are stolen weekly.
“The plant only multiplies once a year by means of seed and to germinate, the seed takes three and a half years to flower.
“Being poached once a week will not enable the plants left, to accumulate fast enough to carry on growing in the wild.”
Le Roux said that clivia societies across the country are joining efforts to ensure the plant’s preservation by donating seedlings to local nurseries and providing community classes on growing clivias.
In the Border region, the clivia nobilis is endemic to the area and is a unique plant that only grows in the stretch between Alexandra and Hole-in-the-Wall.
Given its regional specificity it is rare and must be protected.
There are many laws in place to ensure that clivias are not pilfered however enforcement is lacking and members of the public remain unaware that buying and selling stolen plants is a crime.
Border Clivia Society chair Barbara Miles said her clivias had also been stolen in the past from her garden although theft happens more frequently amongst growers on smallholdings.
Miles said the society was encouraged this year with a good turnout from the public at the show and hopes that more people will join and become growers by next year.
Miles said: “All the clivias are beautiful in their own way and special in their own way and it was wonderful to see the public support the society and to appreciate the plants and their growers despite how challenging it was this year to be ready in time for the show.”
