This tough evergreen plant is best suited to dry shaded locations in fairly frost-free gardens, but it will tolerate situations with regular irrigation as well as winter temperatures into the low 20s F. In colder climates plants can be brought in during the winter.

Clivia miniata 'Tessa' came from famed Santa Barbara clivia breeder Dave Conway (1930-2006) who first released it in 1989 and we have been building stock on it since first acquiring a plant from Dave Conway in 1995. Dave named most of his plants after female family members, but we don't know his family relationship with the woman this plant was named for. Dave shared many of his plants with us and his 'Lemon Chiffon' was a plant we used to cross with a yellow Joe Solomone's hybrid to create our breeding line of seed grown yellow Clivia that we call Clivia miniata 'San Marcos Yellow'. For more information on the species see our listing of Clivia miniata. The accompanying photograph on this page was taken by photographer and Clivia breeder James Comstock. 

This information about Clivia miniata 'Tessa' displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.