Brighten your window with 
Gloxinias 
By ALBERT and TRUDY BUELL 
Photographs for FLower Grower by Roche 
F you want color on your windowsill, 
try growing gloxinias. No other house 
plants can provide the interesting 
variations and color range of the new 
gloxinia hybrids, and no other plants 
will reward you so handsomely for the 
small effort it takes to flower them. 
Their colors run the gamut from deli- 
cate orchid pink to darkest purple. 
There are ruffled pure whites, others 
lightly tinted; some that are finely speck- 
led, as if by a light, airy mist; and, 
perhaps most striking of all, there are 
vivid ruffled reds. A_ collection of 
gloxinias in full bloom presents a sight 
not easily imagined by anyone unfamil- 
iar with them. 
In size, no less than in color, these 
new hybrids are a far cry from the 
smallish red and purple bell-shaped 
flowers that were favorites of our grand- 
mothers. Well grown plants of the 
larger kinds usually have flowers 44% to 
5 inches across, and occasionally there’ll 
be an even larger bloom. The more 
floriferous though smaller-flowered kinds 
often have 40 flowers open at once, and 
one of our record plants actually had 
102 flowers open at the same time. 
Gloxinia leaves, too, are both attrac- 
tive and interesting. In some varieties 
they’re nearly smooth, in others extremely 
hairy. They also vary a great deal in 
size, some measuring as much as 14 
inches long and 10 inches wide. 
The easiest way to start a gloxinia 
collection is to purchase potted plants 
or dormant tubers. If you buy tubers, 
the soil mixture is the first thing to 
consider. Gloxinias like a rich, fibrous 
soil, and we have found the following 
mixture satisfactory: one-third good 
garden loam, one-third compost or leaf- 
mold, and one-third made up of half 
peatmoss and half sand. We add a 4- 
inch pot of bonemeal to each bushel 
of this potting mixture, or a little less 
than a cupful to a 12-quart pail of 
soil mixture. Tubers 14% inches across 
or less should be potted in 5-inch pots. 
Larger tubers should be given 6-, 7- or 
8-inch pots. About an inch of crushed 
charcoal in the bottom of the pot in- 
sures good drainage. 
Gloxinias seem to do best in a south 
or east window where they receive all 
the sun possible during the winter 
(Continued on back page) 
HOW TO GROW GLOXINIAS 

Place drainage and an inch of When foliage dies down and 
charcoal in bottom of pot. Use plant shows no sign of new cuttings while plant 
fibrous soil composed of 1/3 growth it should be put in a 
compost or leafmold, 1/3 good dark place, cellar or closet, to the main stem as possible, 
garden loam and 1/3 equal parts to rest. Don’t let pot dry out, 
of coarse sand and peatmoss. water occasionally during rest. 
..- from Tubers 

Hybrid gloxinias of today are a spectacle to behold. Large-flowered types have individual blossoms measuring up 
to 514 inches across. Some kinds may have as many as 40 blossoms. The leaves may also measure 14 by 10 inches. 
... from Cuttings 
The authors sow their seed on 
soil composed of compost, good 
loam, coarse sand and peatmoss. 
The seeds are then covered with 
a thin layer of sphagnum moss 
through a 
Leaves can be inserted Tubers form on the base of the 
bowl, terrarium or large bulb 
The authors root 
Select green, robust leaves for 
development are shown above. 
When tuber has formed, right, 
it should be potted. 
pan, above. 
their leaves 
but vermiculite 
can be used with much success. 
blooming. Cut leaf as close 
where leaf-stem is hard. 
tings always come true to color. 
or peatmoss 


ney, 

Modern gloxinias range in color from light lavender to dark 



purple. Some are speckled like the pink and white above. 
Cover Picture 
The gloxinias pictured 
on the cover are hybrids 
developed by the au- 
thors. A is a_ heavily 
ruffled red. B, C and 
D show the varying de- 
grees of red and pink 
speckling possible: B is 
completely speckled; in 
C the speckling runs al- 
most solid in the throat, 
and D is _ delicately 
speckled on _petal-edge 
and in throat. 
...- from Seed 
Seeds germinate in six to ten 
days. Plants in pot left are 
ready for transplanting; pot 
right, transplanted seedlings. 
Seed-pot is watered through 
corked small pot in center. 

Roche 

Plants grown from seeds sown 
in the summer will flower the 
next spring. The plant will 
bloom again in the fall if 
main stem is cut off close to 
soil level, leaving two leaves. 
