June Plant of the Month

By Joan Pritchard

Hardy Gloxinia – Sinningia sellovii

No pollinator garden should be without this plant. It can have as many as 100 narrow bells dangling from each of its multiple arching stems.

This is not your florist’s gloxinia. Those fussy, hard to keep alive, pampered stars have a tough, reliable relative. This one hails from the deserts of Argentina and loves sun and heat. Too often they are lumped with shade plants due to their relationship with others of their genera, but they will not thrive if you treat them that way. They will grow in part shade, but for a truly spectacular show, full sun is best.

These beauties have attractive bright green textured leaves, forming a nice bushy center from which long arching flower stalks emerge in summer. They can be any where from 2 to 4 feet in length and height depending on how vigorous your plant is. You do want to give it some room, even if it doesn’t look too big before it starts blooming. I had one in a pot last summer and it didn’t get that big, but it also had to share space and nutrients with a couple of other plants. I wonder how it would fare in a hanging basket?

I have several plants propagated from broken stems. Though tough, the long arching take up quite a bit of space, so high traffic areas are not advisable. My pieces usually came from clumsiness while weeding, but the plants recover just fine and I have new plants, so no real loss. To propagate, just cut back the blooming stem, strip leaves off the bottom keeping a few at the end, dip in rooting hormone and stick into clean potting soil. Keep moist in good light, but out of the sun until well rooted.

Speaking of size and propagation; here is a good mystery. A few years back I noticed a small plant growing at the corner of my garage, right beside the potting bench. No idea how it got there. Maybe a piece fell off the bench, unnoticed? The thought of digging it up and replanting it crossed my mind (such as it is) several times every year, but somehow a round-to-it never came up. Now I have a huge plant getting in the way every time we go around the corner and it is the most spectacular thing! It does confirm it’s reputation of being a tough desert plant. The soil right against the garage foundation is definitely not the best and it gets no irrigation. But it is by far, the biggest, healthiest specimen on the property. No way am I going to risk killing it by digging it up now. It is in a traffic area from the gate to the back of the yard, so I guess it qualifies as an attractive nuisance.

In summary for the Hardy Gloxinia: 

• it’s a broadleaf deciduous perennial bulb / corm / tuber  with bright green foliage
• orange-red or somewhat pinkish red flowers late spring, summer and fall
• average 24-36 inches tall and wide, but can get much bigger
• full sun
• even but low moisture
• average, gritty, or rocky but well-drained soil
• hardiness zones 7b – 11