Hardy Gloxinia
Gloxinia ‘Evita’
Gesneriads have long been a personal favorite, starting from my days growing and selling African violets as a young teenager. There are actually lots of other Gesneriads…the family to which African violets (the genus Saintpaulia) belongs. Like any addiction, African violets led me to streptocarpus, led to columneas, led to achimenes, then aeschynanthus, and a seemingly endless parade of tropical gesneriads. As I grew older and purchased my first house, my tropical plant passion waned, and I switched gears from hanging baskets to hardy perennials. My quest for winter hardy perennial members of the gesneriad family, however, proved much more of a challenge.
There were actually a few genera of gesneriads that thrived in much colder climates than Raleigh…Jankaea, Haberlea, and Ramonda to mention a few, but my early attempts with these genera failed since they weren’t exactly enamored by our summer heat and humidity.
By the late 1990s, friends at Yucca Do Nursery in Texas had shared a few winter hardy members of the gesneriad genus Sinningia, which I had previously only known from the 1970s era florist gloxinias. These misnamed “gloxinia” plants, which I’d also killed on several occasions, were actually not gloxinias at all, but the tender Brazilian native, Sinningia speciosa. As I continued trialing more South American Sinningia species, I was able to find several more that actually thrived in our Raleigh garden, so it was time to see what other genera would survive.
What about true gloxinias…are any of them winter hardy? My first attempt with the genus was with Gloxinia sylvatica, shared by a friend from Central Florida. Although it performed amazingly through the summer, it didn’t even survive a mild winter.
Then, in 2002, while hiking through the deserts of Northern Argentina’s Salta Province, I stopped for lunch along a seasonal stream. While others in the expedition sat along the stream to eat lunch, I strolled along the adjacent short rock cliffs, food in hand, when I spied a small red blip among the dense foliage. Pulling back the surrounding plants, I immediately recognized the flower as a gesneriad, thinking initially it might be an achimenes.
As it turned out, I’d found Gloxinia nematanthodes, and at a decent elevation (4000’) for this region. Wedging out a small piece of the corm from in between the rocks was the first step, followed by the required scrubbing, inspection, and the subsequent shipment back home. Once back and potted, only a couple of weeks went by before new growth emerged and I knew my baby had survived its first test. Being a horticultural gambler, I planted my new Gloxinia in the ground that fall, not wanting to waste time finding out if it would be winter hardy for us. By the following spring, I carefully watched, awaiting its re-emergence, and after nearly giving up…there, in mid-June, it peeked through the mulch. Not only had my baby survived and returned, but it had spread underground to make a shockingly large 18” wide patch. I continued to watch the clump each year as it continued to expand to nearly 4’ wide, forming a loose patch of stems
Finally in late 2004, I was ready to share, but needed a name for our new introduction. The choice seems obvious…what else would one name something bright, attractive, and from Argentina, but Evita. In the decade since her first introduction to the gardening world, Gloxinia ‘Evita’ has since become a favorite around the world, both as a garden perennial, and a summer container filler.
We’ve found Gloxinia ‘Evita’ to grow best in part sun, ideally with some light shade during the hottest part of the day. The 1′ stems are clothed in soft green leaves and adorned with axillary flowers, starting in August and continuing into October. Each tubular flower is the most brilliant orange-red we have ever seen on anything other than a custom Ferrari. I’ve grown few other plants in my life that attracted the attention of Gloxinia ‘Evita’, so if you’re not scared off by bright colors, consider inviting Evita into your garden.
– Tony Avent