Last spring I had two nice species of sinnigia in bloom in my classroom. The most stunning of the two is S. sp "Ibitioca", an unpublished species from Brazil, which I grew from seed. With its graceful, rich purple hanging flowers and plush neat foliage it is a real winner of a houseplant, far nicer in my opinion than the large commercial "gloxinia" hybrids. Although it grows in very sunny locations in the wild, it does not seem to demand unusual amounts of light to flower indoors, just bright light as for any of the other larger sinningia species. It does go dormant, and right now new shoots are emerging so it will be time to water it again and wait in anticipation of another spectacular display.
Sinningia aggregata normally has red/orange colored flowers,but a yellow form is well known among gesneriad growers. While not a spectacular species, it does bloom for a long time, and is easy to grow and bloom. It will seed readily if hand pollinated, but the stems are brittle when handled, so care must be taken not to break branches off when handling the plant. It also has a dormant period, but tends to send up new shoots rather quickly.
1 comment:
I remember you handed out styrofoam cups of the sinningia plant during seminar day in 2007. I was one of the few who kept it and now its sitting at home in about 10 or so pots. All from on leaf!
Since ive been at school theyre probably more of them.
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