About the top you cut off... I have never rooted a chirita in water. Not that you can't, I have rooted other gesneriads in water just fine. I will go look at mine later today and see if there is one I can cut to see if it will work for me...be fun to mention at a plant meeting. When I cut one off, I like to root it in damp moss ... I get the best fastest success with that. Put it in a solo cup and set that under cover so there is humidity while it is rooting. Before I was using the moss, I used soil mix, but I had more perlite and some vermiculite and less soil and also under cover. Everyone does it their own way. Maybe it is just winter and that is why it is slow to root for you.
I have read Chirita plants need a little less water and no fertilizer during the winter months. Personally, I treat mine the same all year long, when they need water, they get watered, and I don't use very much fertilizer on them any time of year. My chiritas are growing in window light and living in the south, they get a lot of sun during the winter.
The droopy leaves... When you have a dry plant and you water and later notice outer leaves have not perked back up like they usually do, you should remove those. From my experience with my plants... I would first ask when was the last time you repotted...fertilizer salts build up in soil and chiritas are not happy with that....it can cause a plant to be droopy. Also I would check the roots to be sure they are healthy and have no insect damage. If your plant had dried out too much, the roots will die off (repeated over watering dry plants can rot the roots too) and that could cause the plant to be droopy...you would need to repot it into a smaller pot until the root system builds back up. Also a few years ago, had root mealies cause a plant to go limp and not perk up (that was bad violets, not my chiritas). I'm also guessing your plants didn't get too cold, ha.
Hope something I said will be helpful. Mostly chiritas are pretty tough. They are one of my favorite plants, aren't fussy and have few problems. I have several different ones. I would love to have a pink blooming one, those are pretty, but rare. I have one that blooms yellow and one white one (White Magic...it is huge, takes up a lot of space! and is one I have often chopped off and rooted the top).
tish
