African Violets and Gesneriads: Sinnigias !!!!, 1 by Keyring

Keyring wrote:
I love Sinningias, and since MsC posted her gorgeous Cindy-ella on this thread, http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/568737/, and I posted some pictures of various minis at the U.S. Botanic Garden towards the end of this set of photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/ki/sets/1460725/, I thought I'd get on my little soap box and talk about them some more.

In my book, there are 4 sizes of Sinningia:
- huge (grow outdoors!)
- compact (4-5" pots)
- minis (human hybrids between the compacts and the micro minis - grow next to AVs)
- micro minis (they actually grow this way in nature, on cliffs and crazy places like that !!! Grow in terrariums.)

Well, okay, there's a fourth, which is the Florist's Gloxinia - it's really a heavily bred form of a compact Sinningia, Sinningia speciosa.

The Gesneriad Reference Web has a great info on Sinningias: http://gesneriads.ca/gensinn.htm It's the best place to start. Check out those massive tubers!

and a brand new website dedicated to Sinningias: http://home.earthlink.net/~sinnvenner/sinns.htm

Here at DG, we've had other threads on Sinningias:
- micro minis: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/476871/
- Florist's Gloxinia info/description/culture: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/560690/ and http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/533334/
- Florist's Gloxinia photos: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/562435/ and http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/526247/
- Sinningia Stranded (that's the name of the hybrid): http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/547097/
- Sinningia cardinalis (a compact species): http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/545088/
- Sinningia Purple Crest (a mini): http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/548365/
- more micro minis from MsC: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/573439/
- Sinningia Cindy-ella seed pods !! from MsC: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/573412/

Sinningias grow fast from seed. They can also be started from cuttings, but if you want a plant that will flower exactly like the parent, you should take a whole new shoot with a little bit of tuber attached. They take drought and some are cold hardy down to the 40s.

I'm seeing more of the larger ones being made available in retail catalogs now. http://www.plantdelights.com added one or two to their catalog this year, and http://www.yuccado.com has quite a few. (Please check GardenWatchdog before ordering....)

As for the smaller types, some of the gesneriad growers carry them, and the AGGS seed fund has lots and lots of seeds.

Now, for the dormancy question. Some grow better when allowed to go dormant, but many of the smaller hybrids are more random. If you have stable conditions year-round, they might not go dormant, but if your growing area is cooler in the winter, they will probably slow down or die back. I try to keep mine from losing all their leaves because they sometimes don't resprout. (I have one sitting around right now that hasn't resprouted in over a year.) Once a new shoot starts to appear, I cut off the old scraggly growth.

I've said this before and yes, I'm going to say it again. Everyone should have at least one Sinningia!


This message was edited Feb 3, 2006 6:30 PM

This message was edited Jun 29, 2006 8:22 PM