What Australian Gardeners Want
Clivias take about five years from seed to flower, (12-14 leaves), and are relatively
expensive to buy, so that it is most important for breeders and nurseries to know what
gardeners want.
General Gardeners and Enthusiasts
Some Clivia growers, particularly those who are members of Clivia clubs in South
Africa, Australia and New Zealand, as well as members of internet “chat groups” often
describe themselves as “Clivia enthusiasts”.
As a psychologist, I prefer not to use the term “enthusiast” which describes a person
having a certain internal state. I would rather emphasise some of the behaviours
associated with such enthusiasm which can be observed and measured. e.g. where the
plants are grown, (garden or shadehouse), the number of varieties, time spent on them
etc. These three aspects were found to go together but “shadehouse” was the best
single predictor.
Results of Surveys
In 2009, the Nursery had a stall at four large plant fairs: the Australian Open Garden
Scheme fairs at the Frasers* on the Mornington Peninsula (100km SE of Melbourne) at
the end of February and in Canberra a few weeks later. There was also the Gardening
Australia Expo in Sydney at the end of August, and the Flora Festival at Gosford
(100km North of Sydney) in September.
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| The Nursery stall at the Frasers: Open Garden Scheme, Victoria 2009* |
The Nursery stall at Gosford: Springtime Flora Festival (NSW) September 2009 |
A Chinese-Australian family at the Gosford Festival |
At these fairs, tens of thousands of dedicated gardeners paying over $10 admission, attended. Those attending the Nursery stall were asked to complete a survey form comprising some questions about Clivias and a colour choice. (Click here to see the complete form.)
From the four Fairs, there were over 400 completed questionnaires. Despite the individual surveys being hundreds of kilometers apart in somewhat different climates, and at different times of the year, the results were remarkably similar:
*Tammie Fraser is the President of Australia's Open Garden Scheme. Her husband, Malcolm Fraser (former P.M.) breeds camellias.
Survey Results
| The most attractive characteristics of Clivias are: |
Worst characteristics 44% - Cost 26% - Slow growth 21% - Limited flowering season |
| Where in your home do you grown Clivias? 76% - Shady garden 21% - In pot or on a patio etc 7% - Bush or shadehouse 4% - Indoors |
Is guaranteeing colour important? 74% - Yes 15% - Undecided 11% - No (An analysis of the specialists' responses showed that a majority of them also favoured the guarantee.) |
As, almost invariably, specialist growers have such large numbers of plants that some sort of shadehouse is a necessity, this shows that, (as with most other plants), specialists are a very small minority, (less than 10%) of all growers.
*Colour choices of Australian gardeners, (all Fairs combined plus customer responses).
N.B. (i) These are the colour choices of gardeners. The choices of the specialists who
are members of Clivia Clubs could be expected to be different.
