From Vico Yellow to Stable Pink: The Utopia Vico Breeding Line

Utopia’s Vico Pinks

By Carrie Krüger – Utopia Clivias

Since registering our original Vico Pink plants in 2016, collectors from around the world have shown strong interest in adding these exceptional Clivias to their collections.

Our original Vico Yellow and Vico Peach plants were acquired from Charl Malan, who received them from Mr Nakamura during his visit to Japan in 1997.

In 2004, I crossed my Vico Yellows with the best Vico Peach selections. By 2010, many of the resulting plants had flowered, producing beautiful pinks, peaches, and a smaller percentage of yellows. From this generation, I selected only the finest pink-peach forms for further breeding.

These selections were named:

  • Vico Pink Clouds

  • Vico Pink Explosion

  • Vico Pink Parfait

  • Vico Pink Vogue

  • Vico Peach Kyla

These siblings were crossed with one another in an effort to improve colour intensity, flower form, and umbel quality. In our breeding programme, both flower shape and umbel strength are important selection criteria. Most of these plants produce large umbels with broad, and in some cases, recurved flowers. The flowers lean more toward pink than peach.

In the first generation, approximately 25% of seedlings still produced yellow flowers.

The second generation began flowering in 2015 and 2016. We were delighted to observe that this generation produced no further yellows. It appears that the pink genetic expression has become more stable. Even when using a large yellow as either pod or pollen parent to improve flower count or shape, the resulting progeny were predominantly pink, with a small percentage of peach and very few yellows.

Several outstanding seedlings have been selected and will continue to play an important role in our breeding programme. These include:

  • Vico Baby Pink (a seedling of Vico Pink Vogue × Vico Pink Parfait)

  • Vico Pink Butterfly

  • Vico Pink Giant

  • Vico Pink Sky

We have also begun incorporating the Vico Pinks into our interspecific breeding programme, with the aim of developing large, pendulous pink or peach interspecific flowers. One such plant, bred by Charl Malan using Vico Peach on a yellow interspecific, has already flowered and shows promising characteristics.

Over the years, we have supplied Vico Pink and peach seeds to enthusiasts worldwide. We hope that these seedlings will flower as beautifully in their collections as they have in ours.

Article category
Clivia Breeding