Sinningia speciosa or Gloxinia

This gesneriad with large showy blooms and fuzzy leaves appeals to many people when seen in the store, but then often results in quite a dissapointment when after blooming it dies no matter how much affort they put into care. Little they know that it is a normal cycle for gloxinia tubers to go dormant after profuse blooming just to return and bloom more after couple months.
So, don't trow away yet that pot with dried out gloxinia foliage, read on...
What usually is sold as gloxinia is actually hybridized Sinningia speciosa.
The colors of blooms can vary from purple to dark red and white, some times they are solid or with white edge, sometimes they have spots and blotches.
Gloxinia care
Bright light without burning direct sun. Gloxinias need a lot more light than african violets, otherwise they will become leggy and unatractive. Gloomy north exposure window might be not the best option. If you are trying to grow gloxinia on the windowsill - go for south-east, south-west exposure, but filter the light with sheer to make sure plant will not get sunburn. Nice results might be achieved with grow lights.
Watering enough to keep the soil slightly moist without complete drying out. Gloxinias, as most of gesneriads, does not like water on it's foliage, so it might be a good practice to water them from the bottom - fill up the saucer under the pot with water and let the roots to absorb it. Don't use too cold water, all gesneriads hate cold feet.
Soil should be rich and light at the same time and well draining. Commercial mix for african violets would be good. If you decide to use just regular all purpose soil - add a bit of peat and perlite to it.
Dormancy period for gloxinia is important for abundant blooming, flower size and happy life in general. So after flowering when foliage will start wilting - take a hint and cut on watering. You can cut the bush, but leave alone the tuber in the same pot. It is preferred to keep the pot with tuber in the dark cool spot, but I know the people who leave them on a windowsill with no side effect. After resting - new growth wil appear from the tuber and now it is time to repot into fresh soil and resume regular watering routine. Re-pot tubers into fresh soil after each dormancy period.
Gloxinia propagation
The easiest and fastest way to propagate gloxinia - is from stem or leaf cuttings. With sharp knife cut the stem or petiole on angle. Stick it into a pot with moist mix of peat and vermiculite, or just usual soil mix that you use for gloxinias. You can cover pot with glass jar to preserve humidity around the cutting, but it is not necessary.
Longer but much more exciding method - from seeds. Gloxinia has tiny dust-like seeds. Since gloxinia requires light for germination - seeds should be spread on the surface of moist potting mix. Use shallow container that would allow to keep the potting mix moist easily from the bottom. After a week at most - little green sprouts will appear. When seedlings are big enough to handle transfer them into the individual pots. Use a spoon handle to gather seedling with as much soil around the roots as possible to avoid root disturbance.
Seeds can be aquired from various sources: online, ebay, seed exchange on forums, but, again, it is much more exciting - to produce your own seeds. Single open gloxinia with it's big flowers is ideal candidate for your pollination experiment, you can do it with kids for education purposes. All you need to do is - take tiny creamy powder (pollen) from stamens and transfer it to the stigma, I successfully use q-tip, some people use tiny brush, you can come up with your own tool.
When flower is ready to be pollinated - it dispenses slight fragrance and the stigma has sticky substance to accept the pollen.

Next day after pollination takes place - the flower will fade and you will see the start of developing seed pod. It is better to take the pollen from different flower, or even better, from different plant.
You can cross polinate flowers of different colors for the most unpredictable results - this is how the new hybrids are produced.

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