Earth Bare Gardening Day, back garden queries

Q. Each calendar year our stunning orange clivia blooms outside in our shade backyard, but the tops of the foliage are generally yellow and brown. What results in this discoloration of the leaves?

Georgiana Flaherty, San Jose

A. The most likely result in, if the plants are in any other case balanced and blooming, is much too much water. Clivia, a South African indigenous plant, prefer to be just barely moist, developed in soil with superb drainage. Look at your irrigation and soil dampness to make sure they are not finding also substantially h2o.

Twice a calendar year, clivias need to have a relaxation period of time — in wintertime ahead of flowering and instantly just after spring blooming. Through all those situations of rest, you should really end fertilizing them and h2o must be considerably reduced to once each a few to four months. When new progress commences to show up, you can resume your weekly watering and regular monthly fertilizing plan.

Older foliage on the crops also will change yellow and die as the plants generate new leaves. In that scenario, the yellowing is regular and almost nothing to get worried about.

Clivia thrive with benign neglect. They do not like to have their roots disturbed, so they only want to be dug out and thinned each three to five several years. They also bloom finest when they are a little overcrowded.