Charlotte, née Clive, and her Clivia

We've had some rain (unseasonal) and a few warm days (seasonal) this week and the clivias are blooming. Amazing to see the afternoon light run down the floral tubes and reflect back out like a beam of light.

I was fascinated too to find out that the Clivia genus is named in honor of Charlotte Percy (née Clive), Duchess of Northumberland (1787–1866), and, for a while, the governess of the future Queen Victoria. She is reportedly the first person to cultivate clivias (native to South Africa) in Great Britain.