My Secret Pal at the office gave me a gorgeous purple gloxinia, with buds galore. This plant is fabulous! I've never had a gloxinia before, so I'd appreciate a bit of guidance. As I understand it, it's sort of a cousin to African violets. It's now living with our AVs, under the grow lights that are keeping the AVs happy. I've read that it should not be wicked but be allowed to "dry out" between waterings. This may be a silly question, but how dry is "dry?"
My next question has to do with the dormancy period. After it finishes blooming (with all those buds!) and slows down, do the leaves die back or should I "help it along?" We're in Savannah so if it starts to go dormant during the summer other than putting the tuber in the fridge there's nowhere it can find 50 to 60 degrees. (Oh, if only...we bake all summer.) Would it be okay staying under the lights, or should I move it to, say, a closet?
As you can see, I'm a TOTAL newbie with this plant, but it's so beautiful we want to give her a try. (I've also heard that we can start them from leaves, just like AVs.... Is this about to turn into a new addiction?!) Thanks for your help.
My first gloxinia
Congratulations on your new plant! Gloxinia's are really Gorgeous! I think it will do great on the stands with your AV's. I'm not sure about putting the tuber in the frig when it dies back. I have one that just sits in the pot of soil on the top shelf of a plant stand and it has re-sprouted 3 years in a row. I'm so afraid it got thrown out earlier this week ... I was cleaning and dumped a couple of pots with just soil where some AV's had died ... have a feeling the glox tuber was in one of them!
I know a lot of folks here wick their plants ... I only wicked for a short time and ended up taking them all off wicks because my soil was too heavy and they were staying too wet.
Here's the link to Plant Files with some information for you on Gloxinia: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/53536/
Plantladylin, thanks for the information. I hope you didn't toss your tuber by mistake. We wick our AVs (using Optimara's AV mix which is light enough to keep from getting sodden), but I think I'll do my "heft test" with the pot and let the glox dry out a bit before watering.
When yours was dormant did you keep it moist at all, or let it dry out completely? This is where I think I'll be flying completely blind because I've never dealt with a tuber before. (Well, 2 dahlias came back in the garden this year from 2 years ago, but I didn't have anything to do with that other than not pull them out until I could tell if they were "friend or foe.")