There are many different kind of beautiful landscaping perennial and this article is about Gloxinia. Learn how to care about Gloxinia.
Flowering houseplant with gloxinia (Sinningia speciosa) is a perennial, the plants would bloom and die but after a period of dormancy, it would grow back with a fresh blush of velvety large flowers.
Nowadays gloxinia has evolved to hybrids, a quick produce of a large number of blossoms. They produce an excellent display for about a couple of months, however, after the flowers fade, the plant usually does not comes back. It will divert all its energy in flowers instead of stabilizing the sturdy roots. Because of this reason, gloxinia is best to grown as annuals. If we treat this flower as annuals and thrown away after the blooming cycle, we are focusing on caring of gloxinia flower looking fresh while it is in bloom.
Care of Gloxinia Plant
Gloxinia flower care is very easy and simple. Gloxinias need to be placed in a bright area with direct sunlight. Any spots near a window or by the balcony reaching for sunlight is ideal.
Gloxinia plant thrives in an average room temperature of between 60-75 F.
Always keep gloxinia soil moist with sufficient water. The leaves will have brown spots if the soil is too wet, therefore, it is advisable to water directly to the soil and not onto the leaves. However, when the plant dries out, gloxinis will go into dormant.
Use a plant-based, high-phosphorus plant food every two weeks on your flowering gloxinia houseplant.
When you grow gloxinia houseplants as annuals, they don’t need to be repotted. If you are potting the plant in a decorative vessel or if you need to replace part of the soil due to accidental spillage, use an African violet potting soil.
Gloxinia grows from seeds
Gloxinias on the display in the garden center is beautiful and well worth the price, but sour growers may want to try growing them from seeds. Gloxinia roots are tender and therefore, it is not easy to transplant into a bigger container when it is still young. Start the seeds in a 4- to 6-inch pot so that, it can grow to full size.
Fill the pot to about 1 1/2 inches from the top with the potting soil. Sieve an extra 1/2 inch of soil through a screen in the top of the pot so that gloxinia tender roots will be able to push through the soil during seeds germination.
Lightly wet the soil and gently press the seed on the surface. Seeds germination required sunlight, so don’t bury them. Place the pot in a plastic bag and seal the top to keep the soil moist and the air moist. The seeds will germinate in three or four days. At that point, open the top of the bag and completely remove it after a week. Mist the soil if the surface feels dry.
Get rid of flower bulbs
Why it is necessary to get rid of flower bulbs. It is not because it has grown wild and change the look of your garden with other flowers but the bulbs can be invasive to the plant. Sometimes removing bulbs from your garden can be difficult, but with patience and perseverance, you can manage to eliminate your garden from unwanted bulbs.
Remove flower bulbs
The important thing to do when removing the bulbs from gardens is to cover over the bulbs with a black or dark color plastic bag during the growing season. This exercise will block all sunlight and stop the bulbs from growing. Later, dig out the the bulbs you want to get rid of in the fall.
It is easier if the plants has grown above the soil, pulling them out can be easy, however, there is a tendency of breaking up the root while doing so. In this scenario, there is very likely that the left behind bulbs will grow new plant next year in the unwanted area. The best method of removing the bulb is using hand shovel to dig about 6 inches larger and way deeper than the size of the bulb to completely get rid of all the roots.
Kill flower bulbs
Herbicide kill flower bulbs, no doubt. It will kill the unwanted bulbs easily, but the repercussion is that it will also kill your other plants too.
It is recommended to spray the herbicide on a warm, dry day because the herbicide will not work as well in the cold weather. In the cold days, the bulb shrink and it is too tight to be penetrated by the herbicide. The herbicide should be applied directly to the foliage so that it can travel to the bulb and kill the roots.
It is also suggested to cut the foliage to open the pores, so that, the herbicide is able to get into the bulb more effectively. The bulbs is known to be very stubborn, therefore extra digging, multiple spraying and cover up the bulbs may be required to be done over 3 seasons repeatedly to completely halt the bulbs from growing.