If you want color on your windowsill, try growing gloxinias. No other house plants can provide the interesting variations and color range of the new gloxinia hybrids, and no other plants will reward you so handsomely for the small effort it takes to flower theme.
Their colors run the gamut from delicate orchid pink to darkest purple. There are ruffled pure whites, others lightly tinted; some finely speckled, as if by a light, airy mist; and, perhaps most striking, there are vivid ruffled reds.
A collection of gloxinias in full bloom presents a sight not easily imagined by anyone unfamiliar with them.
Gloxinia Flowers and Leaves Size and Characteristics
In size, no less than in color, these new hybrids are a far cry from the smallish red and purple bell-shaped flowers that were favorites of our grandmothers.
Well-grown plants of the larger kinds usually have flowers 4 ½” to 5″ inches across, and occasionally there’ll be an even larger bloom.
The more floriferous though smaller-flowered kinds often have 40 flowers open at once, and one of our record plants had 102 flowers open at the same time.
Gloxinia leaves, too, are both attractive and interesting. In some varieties, they’re nearly smooth. In others, they are extremely hairy.
They also vary greatly in size, some measuring as much as 14″ inches long and 10″ inches wide.
Starting Gloxinia Collection
The easiest way to start a gloxinia collection is to purchase potted plants or dormant tubers. If you buy tubers, the soil mixture is the first thing to consider.
Gloxinias like a rich, fibrous soil, and we have found the following mixture satisfactory: one-third good garden loam, one-third compost or leaf mold, and one-third made up of half peat moss and half sand.
We add a flinch pot of bone meal to each bushel of this potting mixture or a little less than a cupful to a 12-quart pail of soil mixture.
Tubers 1 ½” inches across or less should be potted in 5-inch pots. Larger tubers should be given 6-, 7- or 8-inch pots. About an inch of crushed charcoal in the bottom of the pot ensures good drainage.
Ideal Growing Conditions For Gloxinias
Gloxinias seem to do best in a south or east window where they receive all the sun possible during the winter months. In the summer, they like a little shade.
Some successful growers recommend watering them from below, as is usually recommended for African violets, but we have always watered them at the soil’s surface.
We apply water until it runs out the bottom of the pot, and we do not water again until the soil surface shows signs of drying out. Thus, the soil is never waterlogged, which may prevent the buds from developing.
Watering and Fertilizing Gloxinias
Fertilizer requirements during the growing season will depend upon the fertility of the loam and compost (or leaf mold) used in the potting mixture.
We apply liquid fertilizer, prepared from a complete commercial fertilizer, once or twice during the summer.
Resting Period and New Growth Cycle
Gloxinias should be given a short rest after blooming during the spring and summer. This should start in September or October.
Our method is to repot the tubers as soon as the plants die down and before storing them for the rest period.
Thus handled, the potted tubers can be kept in the basement or a dark closet until new growth starts. During the resting period, they should be kept just slightly moist.
The new cycle may start at any time, depending upon the nature of the individual plant. Some tubers are very slow to start, while others take almost no rest at all.
Occasionally, a tuber will send up a new shoot before the old top dies down, and we have found that such growth will develop into just as good a plant as if the tuber had taken a two-month rest before making a new top.
If no growth is visible in four months, the amount of water given should be gradually increased.
We have found that plants that produce an early crop of blooms in the spring can be cut off just above the first pair of leaves and thus made to produce another good showing of flowers in 10 to 16 weeks.
This second flowering, however, should not be allowed to run beyond September. The plant should then be given less water in preparation for its rest.
Gloxinias from Seed
Gloxinias sinningia can be easily raised from seed without difficulty and will develop into beautiful flowering plants within seven to ten months.
Seed sown in July produces the best plants. Any of the accepted methods of germinating fine seeds and handling small seedlings will be found satisfactory.
Our favorite method is illustrated on page 33. In the center of the seed pot, we insert a much smaller pot, the drainage hole of which is corked, and this small pot is kept full of water.
The water slowly seeps through the small pot’s sides, thus keeping the soil in the seed pot moist. The soil in the seed pot should be loose, not packed down.
Seed Germination
The seed will germinate in six to ten days, and the seedlings should be transplanted as soon as they are large enough to handle.
Repotting into larger pots is, of course, necessary as the plants develop. During the fall, winter, and spring, the plants should be kept at a night temperature of around 62° degrees Fahrenheit.
Gloxinia seed should be fresh since its viability decreases greatly after a year. It’s always advisable, there are, to procure seed from a reliable source.
Leaf Cuttings
Leaf cuttings started in the spring or summer will usually produce tubers that flower the following year.
Occasionally, a cutting started in March or April will send up a shoot within six or eight weeks, which will flower during the same growing season.
Our experience indicates that the leaf should be cut as close as possible to the stem of the plant, where the leaf stem is hard.
We have found that a leaf with a hard stem will root more quickly and form a better tuber than one with a soft succulent stem.
Root Cuttings
We usually root cuttings in coarse sand since we can access a sandbank. However, Vermiculite has proved its merit, and peat moss has also been found satisfactory.
A goldfish bowl or terrarium seems to be the ideal container for gloxinia cuttings, especially in the dry atmosphere of a steam-heated home, since it keeps the air around the tuber as much as possible and burns the old top.
Understanding and Caring For Gloxinia Tubers
The question most often asked is, Why do some plants become “leggy” or “spindly”? This condition is almost always due to insufficient light.
Strangely, however, some plants need considerably more light than others, and so a spindly plant should always be given the sunniest spot you have.
Occasionally, we’ve found plants that just won’t get over their legginess until the sun gets higher and the days longer.
Curling of the leaves of some plants is also usually due to inadequate light or insufficient space. This curling does not affect the flowering of the plant, but it does detract from its appearance.
No gloxinia tuber should be condemned and discarded until you have sincerely understood its requirements and given it every chance to prove its worthiness.
A well-grown gloxinia is the most handsome houseplant you could own, and occasionally, a little extra fussing pays off.
44659 by Albert And Trudy Buell