I purchased four florist gloxinia plants from Home Depot, they had neglected to water them and they were severely wilted, they were clearing them out for $1 each and I felt bad for them so I bought them all. I've given them a good soak and now the soil is nice and moist like it should be and the leaves have all perked up. They have finished flowering mostly, there's a few buds on two of them but I think they will probably die due to the drying out they went through. My question now is, are they supposed to go into some sort of dormant stage? Should I stop watering them slowly or keep the soil moist like when they are flowering? Can I coax them into reblooming without going dormant, do they all go dormant? I've read different things on different sites, some say let the tubers dry out, some say never let them dry out completely, some say that not all florist gloxinias go dormant, and I'm totally confused! Here are some pictures of them: wilted: http://www.flickr.com/photos/megz/45047025/ revived: http://www.flickr.com/photos/megz/45047026/ Thanks in advance for your help!
hi there ..this page should help ya with yourplant .. im not in any way endorsing Denver plants .. but i just beleive there info on plants is pretty good and reliable .. here is the link http://www.denverplants.com/flower/html/glox.htm and BTW .. loved your pics .. i looked through them all .. Smudge is just adorable reminds me of my Radar .. and i just loved that squirrell . she was just adorable i wished i could hand feed one ..i just love wildlife... and that baby seal OMG how adorable .. oh man i woulda loved to have been there ..just the kind ya want to hold em and hug em and squeeze em ...lol.. and a big kiss ...just loved the pics .. Marn
Gloxinias can repeat bloom if given plenty of warmth and light if you prefer to grow them indoors. They will go dormant at some point in time as the leaves tend to just wilt and no matter how much water you give them the leaves will not bounce back. You will see. Yours did come back which is a good sign that their growth cycle for this year may not be over yet. An indoor fertilizer such as a 30-10-10 at a rate of one ounce per gallon of water may trigger these to bloom again for you. As long as the leaves stay a dark green and remain lush and turgid they can send out some more blooms. These are best watered from the base of the pot and let the water be absorbed through the drainage holes in the bottom of the container. Gloxinias do not like their leaves to become wet for any reason which may preclude watering the soil unless you are careful. The spotting issue of wet leaves is the minor point. The leaves if they get too wet too often will just wilt, turn brown and the whole stem will fall off right where it attaches to the tuber. When these tubers go dormant it is best to leave them in a room temperature place, like a dark closet but not in an overly cool and moist garage as the moistness may lead to trouble with a rotting fungus later. Some people leave the tubers right in the same pot while they are dormant, I have. A standard procedure used to be that once the tubers were dry enough to lift out of their pots, dust them with a fungicide dust, a sulfur dust alone is adequate for this purpose before storing these while they are to be dormant for a few months. You will have to fertilize them often, about once every 10 days to two weeks to keep them going. Florist grown Gloxinias in a greenhouse are given a half strength fertilizer with almost every watering until they start to bloom and then a bloom fertilizer with much less Nitrogen in the concentration will be given to the plant from then on. Be careful not to over water these tubers as they do best with a moist to dry soil and will rot easily with an overly damp and wet soil. A good rule to follow is that when the soil seems a little bit on the dry side, then give them some water but do not let the soil become altogether dry either. Jim
Thanks for the comments on my photos Marn! Yeah I love my pets and other animals :) Jim thanks for that information, it is very useful! I'll make sure to give them some fertilizer when I water them and hope for blooms. megz
