The Garden 38: 8 (July 5, 1890)

THE GLOXINIA
J. Douglas

Visitors to the great exhibition promoted by the Royal Horticultural Society in the gardens of the Inner Temple could not fail to be struck with the excellent display made by the Gloxinias from Messrs Veitch and Sons, Chelsea and Messrs Sutton and Sons, of Reading. The varieties exhibited by both firms were of undoubted excellence and showed the vast improvement that has been made since the purple flowered Gloxinia speciosa was introduced seventy five years ago.

In those early days the patrons of gardening supported no less than three monthly illustrated publications and all of them figured the new Brazilian plant. The Botanical Register contains an exceedingly good coloured plate (tab 213) for the year 1817. It is also figured in the same year in Bot. Mag. (tab 1937). Loddiges' Botanical Cabinet also has a coloured plate of it (tab 28). It was stated to be generally cultivated in public and private gardens round London.

There were two shades of purple colour, the flowers drooping with a whitish throat, purple spotted internally. In the year 1833 a variety with pure white flowers was in cultivation. It is figured in Bot. Mag. (tab 3266); with but three or four lines of printed matter, not a word as to where the plant came from, or by whom it was introduced, reference being made to the two purple forms, but to none other. Nine years later a very distinct variety was introduced from the Organ Mountains in Brazil by Messrs. Veitch, of the Mount Radford Nurseries, Exeter. It was named G. macrophylla variegata. The flowers were purple, but the foliage was beautifully marked on the veins with white. In 1844, four garden varieties were figured in Bot Reg. (tab 48). Three of them were red and rose of various shades, and they were the produce of a variety with reddish coloured flowers. They were raised by Mr. Carton, gardener at Syon, who stated that they were a cross between Sinningia guttata and the Gloxinia, the Sinningia being the pollen parent; but Dr. Lindley, in describing them stated, that they give little evidence of the cross. Since that time the Gloxinia has become increasingly popular as a garden flower. Varieties were raised producing erect flowers, which rapidly gained precedence over the drooping flowered type. Next came a very distinctly spotted form of rather a weakly constitution, but this undesirable characteristic has been overcome, and only varieties of vigorous constitution are now introduced. The characteristics of Messrs. Sutton's varieties were vigorous plants, large flowers of good form, some of the white and lighter coloured varieties being very charming. Messrs. Veitch's flowers were by comparison rather smaller, but of exquisite form and of the richest colours yet seen at a public exhibition. I find the Gloxinia one of our most useful flowering plants in the early summer months, for if the plants are brought into flower in a hothouse they will stand a long time in the greenhouse or conservatory, the heat of these being sufficient to keep the flowers in good condition for a long period. The culture is well known now, anyone who can cultivate the commonest things can manage to grow and flower this plant, but to get the plants up to the highest state of excellence is another thing, and those who wish to excel must take special pains to keep their plants in good health. As a rule, the Gloxinia is tolerably free from the numerous plagues that plant life is heir to, but during the present season I have had complaints of the leaves being badly injured by some parasite of an almost microscopical size. Indeed, this is the only insect that seriously damages the plants; it is a species of thrips, and may be destroyed as soon as the plants show signs of its presence by fumigating them with tobacco smoke, but plants that are badly injured by it had much better be thrown away. The Gloxinia is very easily raised from seeds, and any specially good varieties that may be raised in that way can be propagated by planting leaves or pieces of leaves in sandy soil in a moist, warm and close atmosphere. Small corms speedily form at the end of the leaf-stalk or at the larger nerves of the leaves if these are carefully cut and planted in very sandy soil or even in pure sand. The pure sand has a tendency to become over dry; whereas an equal portion of loam and leaf-mould added to it retains the moisture. The corms formed must be kept in dry sand through the winter in a warm greenhouse, and they may be planted at intervals any time after the first of January. Every one of them will produce flowering plants. The system of culture is this: the smallest corms may be planted in small sixty sized pots, the large ones in the largo sixties—the best potting soil being formed of one part fibrous peat, two parts good fibrous loam, one of leaf mould, and one of decayed manure, adding to it as much coarse white sand as may be thought necessary. The plants grow very freely in a hothouse temperature, and soon require repotting into larger pots, in which they may be allowed to flower; 4-inch to 6-inch pots are the sizes used. The two-year-old corms form large flowering specimens requiring 7-inch and 8-inch pots. The plants require to be freely watered—at least, they ought not to be at any time very dry; but in this case the drainage should be free, so that the water may pass rapidly away. Seeds sown early in the year will produce good flowering plants by midsummer, so that by the expenditure of a shilling or two for seeds, a stock of flowering plants sufficient to fill a moderate-sized house may be obtained in a few months.

Gloxinia maculata should not be overlooked as a distinct and handsome stove plant of easy culture. On this species the genus was founded, and the plant was cultivated in the Chelsea Botanic Garden in 1739. It will grow 3 feet in height, and flower for a long time in the summer and autumn months. A good sized plant will need a 10-inch or an 11-inch pot to show its full development.

A smaller, more slender-growing form has been elevated to the rank of a species under the name of G. pallidiflora. It is a much more recent introduction, having been sent from Santa Martha by the collector, Mr. Purdie, in 1843-4.

The genus Sinningia is not much known to ordinary cultivators. It was founded on the species S. Halleri, sent over by Mr. David Douglas from Rio Janeiro when he was collecting for the Royal Horticultural Society in 1825. It is an erect growing plant, with greenish-yellow Gloxinia-like flowers. A more striking garden plant is S. guttata, another species introduced from Brazil through the Royal Horticultural Society in 1826; it flowered in the society's garden in 1827. Its habit is erect. The flowers are just like those of a white Gloxinia, densely spotted livid purple.