identify this plant please

any help identifying this house plant we received as a gift would be appreciated so I can then figure out how to care for it so the flowers rebloom. Do I cut the stems the old flowers were on, etc...???
thanks,

I think its some kind of gloxinia.

Definitely a Gloxinia (Sinningia sp./hybrid); it grows from a tuber and so you do need to cut the spent flower stems to prevent it from expending energy on trying to produce seeds.

Here's the link:

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/53536/

LariAnn

Beautiful Glox. They are decidious and I had one that recently went dormant ... I labeled the pot so I know there is a bulb under the soil and in another couple of months it will sprout from the bulb for another beautiful plant. I have two of these plants that I bought on Wal-Mart's clearance table about 4 years ago.

Lin, Do you keep yours outside? If so, do they go dormant if you keep them indoors all year? I've been thinking of getting one, but I would have it inside.

Donna

Donna: No, mine are in containers inside as houseplants! I've never tried growing them outside.

We also grow these as indoor plants and they have a long flowering time, they dont like strong sunlight and best to water from below, that is, to stand the pot in a bowl of water and allow the compost to soak UP the water rather than put water in the top of the pot, if you get water onto the foliage, it can cause the tuber to rot, when in the resting period, just keep the soil damp enough so the tuber dont die off, then come the growing time, you will see new bits of foliage come from the center of the tuber and you start it into growth again, hope this helps you out a bit, good luck, WeeNel.

Just this morning I noticed some green peeking out of a pot on my plant stand. It is one of my Gloxinia's beginning to re-sprout ... teeny little green leaves. I didn't think it would sprout again so soon after dying back. Here's a picture of it from August 7th. This is a plant I got from theClearance table at Wal-Mart for $1.50. It's never had many blooms on it at one time ... I think 3 is the most I've seen at once but it's still pretty:

Here's the same plant right now ... a teeny, tiny sprout:

This is an easy plant to grow from leaf cuttings, you use a tray of very sandy compost mix, remove a large leaf from the plant, remove the stem at the bottom and fold the leaf in half gently
(not breaking the leaf) then you cut with sharp knife at an angle, from outer leaf down to the vein,
then insert the narrow stem bit into the compost only just covering a tiny bit of the vein side, do this the who;e way up the leaf till you have about 4/6 cuttings, sit them in light but not direct sunlight and after about four to six weeks you will notice new little buds of leaf growing from the middle of the inserted leaves, get a pencil to lift these free from the compost and pot on into very free draining compost till they get many leaves, then grow on as the adult plant. good luck. WeeNel.

I spend most of my time on the African Violet/Gesneriad forum and a lot of people grow from leaves this way ... not only with Gloxinia's but also Streptocarpus and other Gesneriad's.

I agree, these plants are so easy to increase from leaves, most people who grow several do this just incase they do loose some for whatever reason, then they have some to continue their collection, good luck, WeeNel.

Oh how pretty! I will have to find me one of these to add to my collection!