How to care for a heat-sensitive clivia so it survives the summer safely

A few days ago many regions across the country entered the dog days of summer, and the plum rain season just ended yesterday, yet the weather is still humid and muggy. The dog days that follow, boosted by El Nino, will be even more formidable, and this summer is bound to be tough for the plants at home.

Different plants have different temperaments and different weaknesses. Clivia, pothos and succulents are among the varieties most commonly grown in ordinary homes these days, so park landscaping engineer Wang Qiang has prescribed the right remedy, providing a detailed guide to surviving the summer safely especially for residents who grow clivia at home.

Clivia has always had a very high rate of appearance in the homes of Changzhou residents, and its cultivation history is very long, making it deeply loved by veteran flower growers. Wang Qiang says that high temperatures and consecutive rainy days in summer are the periods of high incidence of root rot in clivia. To prevent root rot in clivia, you must avoid waterlogging in summer and not let water soak the roots for long periods. For fertilizing, use well-fermented organic fertilizer, in appropriate and moderate amounts, applying light fertilizer frequently. If root rot is found, remove the rotten roots promptly and disinfect the roots well.

To rescue rotten roots, first tip the whole plant out, remove and cut off the rotten roots, then coat the wounds with charcoal powder or fine stove ash (rinsing with potassium permanganate water also works), and place it in the sun for about ten minutes to use ultraviolet light for disinfection and sterilization. Wang Qiang says that if more than half of the roots have rotted, you can place it in fine sand to encourage rooting; if only a few roots have rotted, you can transplant it into replaced, treated nutrient soil, control watering within half a month, and it can recover after one or two months.