The garden gloxinia belongs to the trumpet tree family and you can see that. The flowers are reminiscent of this instrument. They are available in white, or pink, and allegedly also in purple, but I haven’t found any of them. The throat of the flower is always yellow. The flowers are quite large, up to 8 cm in diameter. They appear from May and I’ve read about blooming garden gloxinias until November. Incidentally, the outdoor gloxinia is also called the Chinese trumpet flower. This also immediately clarifies where this plant originated. It grows there at altitudes over 2,000 meters. Incarvillea delavayi is not at all related to the gloxinia.
Table of Contents
classification
The garden globe is a perennial. It becomes about 60 cm wide and just as high. This plant has a bulbous storage root, similar to a dahlia. Usually you can only buy the tubers in specialist shops. They are particularly popular at garden fairs. But there they are mostly offered as “flowering ferns”. This is certainly due to the finger-shaped leaves of the plant. Incarvillea delavayi have nothing to do with fern either. Fern does not bloom.
The garden globe is said to keep voles and moles away. I haven’t found anything to confirm this. You can place this flowering perennial in sunny flower beds or in perennial beds. It is also possible to keep a bucket, but make sure that the water is poured evenly!
sorts
- Incarvillea delavayi ‘Deli Rose’ – magenta to pinkish pink, slightly darker than most pink flowers
- Incarvillea delavayi ‘Alba’ – white
- Incarvillea olgae – pink, slightly higher species, should not bloom until late summer
- Incarvillea mairei – rosa bis pink
- Incarvillea grandiflora – rosa bis pink
Care of the garden gloxinia
There is not much to say or to write about care. The garden gloxinia is quite undemanding and easy to care for, and yet it pleases with its beautiful, large and quite eye-catching flowers. It needs a good location and a suitable substrate, and then every now and then water to grow. Container plants consume significantly more of this and should also be fertilized. The open-air glow plant only makes some work during the winter. Either you leave the tubers in the ground, but then they should be well covered, or you take them out of the ground and overwinter them dry, cool and dark, similar to dahlia tubers. Otherwise, the garden glow line is hardly any work.
location
The garden glow line is quite flexible in terms of its location. She likes a bright, i.e. sunny to partially shaded place. I could imagine the blazing midday heat, causing the flowers to wither more quickly. They usually don’t like that and fade faster. Otherwise these plants are very adaptable and have no special requests.
- Sunny to partially shaded
- Do not plant in an area exposed to the wind.
- The location doesn’t have to be sheltered from the wind, but I wouldn’t put the garden glow in my wind tunnel here, because the beautiful flowers are quickly tattered.
Plant substrate
When it comes to the planting substrate, the outdoor glow line is a bit more demanding, but it won’t be difficult here either. A humus-rich, not too dry and not too wet substrate is beneficial for healthy growth. It should be free of lime. Heavy soils are unfavorable and need to be improved. I would mix light soils with compost so that they don’t dry out too quickly and a few nutrients are retained and not rinsed out straight away.
- Humorous, light to fresh
- Neutral to slightly acidic soil
- Not too dry and not too wet
- Work up heavy soils with sand and compost.
- Kalkfrei
plant
If you have taken the tubers out of the ground over the winter or if you have bought new ones, they have to be put back into the ground, of course. They are preferred in the house. This has to be done in good time so that the garden gloxinia also start to bloom early in the year. You then have something of the blooming beauties for a longer period of time.
- The tubers are placed in soil from March.
- The pot must be big enough.
- The warmer the tubers are, the better the garden gloxinia will grow.
- From mid-May, when frosts are no longer expected, they can be planted outdoors.
- The heart of the plant must be about 5 cm deep in the ground !!!
- It is important not to damage the storage roots.
- Planting distance in the tub about 15 cm, in the open about twice as much
- Do not squeeze the bulb
- Drainage in the pot is important when it is kept in a bucket.
- In addition, you can spread a layer of hydro granules over it.
- Water abundantly after planting.
Watering and fertilizing
Watering and fertilizing are not particularly complicated or strenuous. More or less water should be provided, especially during flowering the plants need enough of it. Container plants require significantly more water than those planted in the bed. Here it can happen that watering has to be carried out every day when it is hot. Planted specimens do not have to be fertilized. Potted plants enjoy additional nutrients.
- Water regularly
- The plants need a lot of water in the bucket and when they are also in the sun.
- For potted plants fertilize with liquid fertilizer
- Planted garden gloxinia do not need any fertilizer, although I have also read that a slow release fertilizer should be added in spring.
- It is advisable for them to mix in some compost when planting
- Provide potted plants with a fertilizer with plenty of phosphate during flowering
To cut
You don’t have to cut the plant. However, it is advisable to remove the fruit clusters that regularly form. This way, new flowers will always appear, well into autumn. It is also possible to harvest the ripe fruit clusters. This is how you get seeds that you can sow in spring.
If the garden gloxine hasn’t pulled in its leaves before the first frosts, cut them off with one hand high above the ground, at least if you want to take the tuber out of the ground. But it is also advisable to do if they stay in the ground. This is a better way to cover them up and that is what you should do in winter.
Overwinter
The garden globe is only partially hardy. In autumn the plants pull in their leaves. The tubers survive in the soil. They should be able to tolerate temperatures down to –20 ° C. Even so, many plants do not survive. Usually it’s not the cold, but the wetness or a combination of both to blame. Therefore, the tubers should be protected from excessive moisture with a thick layer of leaves and brushwood. The tubers must not lie wet. A safer option is to overwinter the tubers similar to dahlias. This is especially important on heavy soils.
- Remove tubers from the ground in autumn
- Let air dry for a few days.
- Put the tubers in a box and cover them with peat to keep them from drying out.
- Winter in a cool and dark, but in any case frost-free.
- Drive forward from February.
Multiply
There are two ways of propagating the garden gloxinia. You can divide the rhizome or sow seeds. There are no seeds for sale, at least not officially. You can certainly find someone somewhere on the Internet who trades or otherwise surrenders some. I’ve seen some on eBay, so they already exist.
sowing
- Sow in spring (February to March)
- Germination at 22 to 25 ° C
- Light germs, i.e. do not cover seeds with soil, just press them on
- Spray with water and cover with foil
- Continue to cultivate young plants at 10 to 15 ° C
- It takes three years for it to bloom
- Dividing the tuber is possible, but difficult
- Often the mother plant does not survive because fungi and pests can penetrate the wound
Diseases and pests
The garden gloxinia is a robust plant. Too much moisture is harmful and the winter can already be bad for the tubers. I would work around that and dig up the tubers.
- If there is too much moisture, the tuber will rot and the plant cannot be saved.
- Protection against rodents – the tubers are apparently really tasty.
Conclusion
The garden glossy line is a real eye-catcher. The flowers are large, extremely luminous and appear numerous. They are quite noticeable, regardless of whether they are planted in the bed or in the tub. The plants don’t need a lot of maintenance and are quite sturdy. If you can get them well over the winter, there isn’t much work left. Potted specimens need significantly more water and nutrients, but planted outdoor gloxinias usually get along quite well on their own. I have no experience with this plant, but everything I read during my research sounded very positive.
