Perhaps few flowers are more beautiful or give more pleasure than a well-grown gloxinia in bloom. Yet many who are fond of these tender plants seem to have difficulty in raising them from seed.
After considerable experimentation, I have worked out a plan which gives me quick results and may be helpful to others.
Raising Gloxinias From Seed
Here’s how to grow Gloxinias from seed:
Select a bulb pan or other container of convenient size and spread small gravel in the bottom for good drainage. On the gravel set, a smaller, ordinary clay flower pot so that the top of this will reach nearly to the rim of the bulb pan.
Fill the space around the inner container with soil composed of two parts good black earth, one part peat moss, and one-half part sand.
For the top inch, the soil should be finely sifted. A small portion of screened vermiculite or similar product is added to this.
The soil is moistened by slowly pouring water into the smaller clay pot in the center, which may be corked, so water merely seeps through the porous sides.
When this has seeped through, and the earth is completely moist, set the container aside for a day or two so the soil may settle.
Then sow the seed sparsely and press it down lightly. Cover the bully pan with glass and set it in a warm place.
Germination usually takes place in 10 days or 2 weeks. During this time, the glass should be slipped off for a short interval each day to admit air.
When the seeds are well up, remove the glass and permit the tiny seedlings to have some sunshine, gradually increasing the amount each day.
Supply additional water through the center pot whenever it is needed.
If seeds were sown thinly, the young plants might remain in the original pan until they are of sufficient size to transplant into individual pots.
The soil into which they are transplanted later should be the mine as that provided at first, but one-half part of well-rotted manure may be added.
Gloxinia seed, planted on March 6, 1947, and handled in the manner described, produced the first open Nossom on July 16.
44659 by A. C. Vieth