Bush Lily Clivia miniata

Very few plants flower properly in dry shade. Clivia miniata does, and that one fact accounts for most of the ones planted in Australia. It builds slowly from thick fleshy roots into a clump of flat, overlapping fans of deep green strap leaves, then from late winter into spring lifts heads of upward facing orange trumpets clear of the foliage on thick stems. Under a jacaranda, along a shaded south facing fence or in pots on a covered terrace, it fills a gap almost nothing else covers.

Shade is not a compromise here, it is the requirement

Clivia is grown right across the warmer half of the country and does well in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and coastal Adelaide; in frost prone inland gardens it needs the shelter of a verandah or a pot that can be moved. Give it part shade, moderate water and soil with plenty of leaf litter or compost through it, and it will accept the dry, root filled ground under established trees once the roots are down. Growth is slow, so buy the size you actually want rather than waiting several years for it. The failure mode is direct sun. Even a couple of hours of hot afternoon light will bleach the leaves to yellow and scorch the tips brown, and because the foliage is long lived that damage stays on the plant for years rather than growing out by the next season. If the leaves are pale and hard rather than deep green and soft, move it before you change anything else. All parts are toxic if eaten, which is worth knowing in a garden used by dogs.

Which shade plant for which shaded bed

The other deep shade options here are Helleborus Mollys White and the coral bells. Hellebore flowers earlier, through the coldest part of winter, in pale nodding blooms, and it wants soil that stays moist and cool, so it is the better choice in Melbourne, Canberra and the tablelands. Clivia is the one for warm, dry, root filled shade where a hellebore would spend every summer struggling for water. Against Heuchera Black Forest Cake the difference is scale and permanence: the heuchera is a low foliage mound that wants dividing every few years, while clivia is a substantial, slow, long lived clump you plant once. Browse the wider flowering range.

Leave it alone, feed it lightly

There is no pruning to speak of. Cut the flower stem off at the base once the last trumpet drops, unless you want the ornamental red berries that follow, and pull away leaves that have gone brown at the base rather than cutting across them. Feed in early spring as the buds move, and again after flowering, using a slow release complete fertiliser or aged compost spread around the clump. Do not divide it every year. Clivia flowers better slightly crowded and sulks for a season after being disturbed, so only lift a clump when it has genuinely outgrown its space. Check the leaf bases for mealybug and the flower stems for snails.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 4 sizes, from 140mm up to 200mm, priced from $18.95 to $36.95 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. These are younger plants, priced for planting in quantity, and they establish quickly once in the ground. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to when to plant in Australia.