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Gloxinia

Gazamp / Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0

Gloxinia

Sinningia speciosa

The classic florists' gloxinia, a tuberous tropical perennial of the Gesneriaceae native to the Atlantic Forest of south-eastern Brazil (POWO, Kew; recorded as Brazilian-native in Flora e Funga do Brasil). It forms a low, neat rosette of soft, velvety leaves above which sit large, showy, bell-shaped flowers in rich violet, red, pink or white, often finished with a contrasting picotee edge. POWO and Flora e Funga do Brasil record Sinningia speciosa as the wild parent of the cultivated florist gloxinia, and that ornamental heritage is exactly how it is grown almost everywhere - as a tender pot or houseplant prized for its plush leaves and velvety trumpet-and-bell flowers. HONESTY: it is very frost-tender, hardy in the ground only in roughly USDA zone 11 and above, and it has a real dormant season - after flowering it dies back to a resting tuber before regrowing, so it is not an evergreen plant but a cyclical one. It is grown purely as an ornamental: no part is eaten. The flowers are insect-pollinated and, in the plant's native Brazilian range, also visited by hummingbirds.

Climate fit: narrow (15/100)

Container

Filler

Light

Part shade

Water

Moderate water

Mature size

6-12" tall · 10" apart

Hardy in zones

11a-12b

nearly frost-free to frost-free winters

AHS heat range

9-11

Plant range authored in AHS heat-zone terms.

Native in Illinois

No

Grown strictly as an ornamental pot or houseplant - it is not a food plant and no part is eaten.

°C

°F

Cold hardiness

These values are location-based: this location's current hardiness is the baseline, and the 2050 value is a projected future climate for this same location.

Now

Zone 6b

Plotwright

USDA Zone 6b

-5°F to 0°F

Won't grow here

2050

2100

Zone 7a

Plotwright

0°F to 5°F

Won't grow here

In plain terms: This location has cold winters. Its winters are projected to keep warming through 2050.

✕

Out of range today and still out of range in 2050.

Heat tolerance

Heat tolerance values are location-based too: heat days today are observed at this site, and the 2050 value projects this same location under a future climate.

Loading AHS heat-zone data for this location...

What it needs

Conditions

Light

Part shade

Water

Moderate water

Spacing

10"

Habit

Low, tuberous tropical perennial (Gesneriaceae) forming a velvety-leaved rosette topped by large bell-shaped flowers - very frost-tender (hardy in the ground only in roughly USDA zone 11+), dying back to a dormant tuber after flowering; grown as an inedible ornamental pot or houseplant

Care tips

•

Treat it as a tender pot or houseplant almost everywhere - it is very frost-tender and can only live outdoors year-round in a frost-free climate of roughly USDA zone 11+; bring it in or keep it indoors over winter.

•

Give it bright but filtered light and steady warmth; hot direct sun scorches the velvety leaves, so a part-shade or bright-but-shielded spot suits it best.

•

Water at the soil, evenly but never soggily, and keep water off the plush foliage and flowers, which mark and spot easily; use an open, free-draining mix to protect the tuber from rot.

Lifecycle

Planting

Grow it as a tender pot or houseplant almost everywhere; it can only live in the ground year-round in a frost-free tropical climate of roughly USDA zone 11 and above. Plant the tuber hollow-side up, just at the surface of an open, free-draining potting mix, and site it in bright but filtered light (part shade) with steady warmth - it scorches in hot direct sun and sulks when cold.

Transplanting

Pot on or refresh the mix while the tuber is dormant or just starting into growth, keeping the velvety rosette and the brittle leaf stalks from being crushed; settle it back at the same shallow depth in fresh free-draining mix and resume even watering once it is in active growth.

Early growth

From a sprouting tuber it grows quickly into a low rosette of soft leaves and reaches flowering size within its first warm season. Keep it warm, in bright indirect light, and evenly but never soggily moist; water at the soil rather than over the velvety foliage, which marks easily, and feed lightly through the active growing season.

Maturity

A mature plant is a compact 6-12 inch rosette that flowers freely through the warm season, then naturally dies back to a resting tuber - this dormancy is normal, not failure. Let it dry off and rest frost-free, then restart it into growth the following warm season to reflower; with this cycle a single tuber performs for several years.

Propagation

Propagated from seed (which is very fine and surface-sown onto warm, moist mix in good light) and, more reliably for a given plant, from leaf cuttings, which root and form new tubers; established tubers can also be divided when dormant.

Plant this, not that

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Educator packet

Plant packet

Gloxinia educator packet

The classic florists' gloxinia, a tuberous tropical perennial of the Gesneriaceae native to the Atlantic Forest of south-eastern Brazil (POWO, Kew; recorded as Brazilian-native in Flora e Funga do Brasil). It forms a low, neat rosette of soft, velvety leaves above which sit large, showy, bell-shaped flowers in rich violet, red, pink or white, often finished with a contrasting picotee edge. POWO and Flora e Funga do Brasil record Sinningia speciosa as the wild parent of the cultivated florist gloxinia, and that ornamental heritage is exactly how it is grown almost everywhere - as a tender pot or houseplant prized for its plush leaves and velvety trumpet-and-bell flowers. HONESTY: it is very frost-tender, hardy in the ground only in roughly USDA zone 11 and above, and it has a real dormant season - after flowering it dies back to a resting tuber before regrowing, so it is not an evergreen plant but a cyclical one. It is grown purely as an ornamental: no part is eaten. The flowers are insect-pollinated and, in the plant's native Brazilian range, also visited by hummingbirds.

Scientific name

Sinningia speciosa

Plant type

perennial

Hardiness

11a-12b

Light

part-shade

Moisture

moderate

Spacing

10 inches