Do you sell blue Clivia?
I am getting this question a lot lately, as well as purple and white. I have to explain to the person that there is NO SUCH THING as blue or purple Clivia. I could make a fortune if I could breed such a thing. Pure white Clivia are also just a dream at this stage.
This furphy has come about mostly on ebay where some international sellers have photoshopped photos of Clivia and made them look blue or purple. They have then listed seed for sale on ebay from blue Clivia. Sad to say that many people have been duped and bought these seeds. They will not know for approximately 5 years that they have been duped until their plant flowers common orange. Due to Clivia being such slow growers, these dodgy sellers are able to get away with selling seed from plant colours that do not exist.
Many Clivia enthusiasts and growers world-wide have reported this to ebay but unfortunately they will not do anything about it. It is merely our word against the seller that blue Clivia do not exist. These sellers even get good feedback from buyers because seed does arrive in the mail so the buyer provides good feedback. What sort of feedback would the seller get in 5 years time when the plant flowers?
Searching on Google images for ‘blue Clivia’ results in the following: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=blue+clivia&espv=2&site=webhp&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjWrbLt39LSAhXIxbwKHensA5QQ_AUIBigB&biw=1280&bih=590
Searching on Google for ‘purple Clivia’ results in the following: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=blue+clivia&espv=2&site=webhp&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjWrbLt39LSAhXIxbwKHensA5QQ_AUIBigB&biw=1280&bih=590#tbm=isch&q=purple+clivia&*
It is best to do your homework and buy from reputable sellers.
(Photo credit is US ebay, ernwat-0)
there is no such plant as a blue Ciliva
Correct
I have recently found a seller’s website in the Netherlands. To my surprise, blue Clivias are listed even there!
I even looked at the item description, and the title is a lump of random words like “Sale! 30 Pcs Mini Bonsai Clivia Flower China Potted Flowers Seedling Balcony Home Amp Garden”. I guess all those words are keywords, and this listing method is common among many sellers, be it from Ebay, Aliexpress and all others “generalist” online stores. The format is too familiar. That made me doubt whether the website owner is the true seed grower or just a trader.
Unfortunately there is quite a lot of this type of advertisement across the Internet now. I just hope not too many people buy from these sellers as they will be very disappointed in 4 – 5 years time. Thanks for your comment. regards, Lisa