Wait until its closer to spring and they will pop up on Ebay. Violet Barn will carry a few. They are easily grown from seed which is also sold on Ebay and available from the Gesneriad Society but you have to be a member to purchase their seeds.

You could also put in a request for tubers or young plants on the exchange page.

Terri

Bill -

if you want to get named varieties with interesting colors, patterns or doubles - you wait until it warms up - April I think. You can get some on ebay - there are fantastic varieties coming from Easter Europe, you can check what Violet Barn and Lyndon Lyon have. Right now - too cold to ship.

I wouldn't recommend buying seeds. First - the shelf life of the seeds is very limited - no more than 6 months - unless you keep them in a fridge. So - you will get a very sparse germination if at all. Second - very probably blossoms will be quite boring.

The Sinningia speciosa market was pretty much dead for many years. Even American Gloxinia & Gesneriad Society dropped Gloxinia from their name and became The Gesneriad Society. Which is fine - but a lot of wonderful old hybrids, the results of 100 years of intense work - are regretfully lost.

i.

i.

Thank you all. I will keep checking and look further later in the year.

Good Job! I like the edge of the petals on yours.

This is Sinningia speciosa 'Irene" - David Thompson hybrid.

Closeup

Beautiful! I really like the speckles and it appears that the plant is rather compact also. Years ago, gigantic size seemed to be the norm.

It was manageable first 2 years, Plus this summer it was sitting on a relatively low light - it stimulates the size of the leaves. I think at some point it had almost 20 flowers open - and it bloomed all summer. sending more and more buds. I have 2 more Sinns by the same hybridizer - " Wendy" and "Nancy". Nancy is less exciting - violet-purple with white throat. Wendy is also a tigrina type - but in red. Here it is.

The best source for the old-time florist gloxinias is likely to be florists - if you're thinking of the huge, big-leaved varieties with colors as described in the opening post.

These have been largely superseded by better plants which are more compact and have a higher ratio of bloom to leaf. I have bought a few from sources like the Violet Barn, partly to use in hybridizing. I've also gotten seed from the Gesneriad Society and grown other varieties like the "Empress" strain from seed, which reproduce all the colors available from the old types plus a number of others.

I have eighteen community and single pots from a commercial seed strain now growing, plus plants from crosses between trumpet and smaller slipper types (got to have something to look forward to over winter).

I can understand nostalgia for the old florist types - maybe someone will find and post a source for tubers.

Meantime, here's an intriguing (?) source for gloxinia tubers (considering the reputation of this company, I'll wait for someone to make the (minimal) investment and report back on their success).

http://www.michiganbulb.com/product/butterfly-gloxinia-blend-05013/other-sun-plants?p=0819680&utm_medium=shopping_engine&utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=google&CAWELAID=120013880000252274&gclid=CPK68rCSncoCFQ6RaQodeZcAaw

hector wong - inkasoy on ebay sells bulbs and seeds of gloxinias. he has a facebook page as well where he offers his crosses for sale. i ordered a ten pack from him, they all grew nicely this summer.

Hector is a very interesting guy, innovative grower and hybridizer. He writes articles - a very useful one was in a Canadian AVSC magazine "Chatter" on using LED strips on AV light shelves.