xGloximannia 'She's Dancing' hybrid by Dale Martens

These are posts to Gesneriphiles about a new hybrid by Dale Martens.
John Boggan grew plants of xGloximannia 'She's Dancing' outdoors, and sent in photos.
You can go to his pictures on Flickr. The link is in his second post.
Dale grew hers indoors, and other GS members have grown this one.
It produces rhizomes, like its parents. All three species in this hybrid used to be in Gloxinnia.
Perhaps we will find rhizomes in the spring.

We can share some of the best of Gesneriphiles through this blog. Questions and comments would be great.
Charles, Twin Cities GS Chapter

From: John Boggan
To: Gesneriphiles
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2010 16:38:20 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Gphiles] xGloximannia 'She's Dancing'

Just over a year ago, at the 2009 Gesneriad Society convention in Silver Spring, Dale Martens gave me a tiny rhizome of her new intergeneric, xGloximannia 'She's Dancing'. The plant took a long time to get established--largely due to neglect on my part--but eventually grew into a plant with handsome, glossy dark green foliage and an ever-elongating stem with large purple flowers with darker purple spots. By the time it finally went dormant in mid-winter it had produced three very large rhizomes and several smaller ones. This spring, I planted the three largest rhizomes together in one large pot to grow outdoors on my deck, and the smaller rhizomes individually to grow indoors under lights. The difference between the two groups of plants is amazing. The indoor plants grew much like the one I grew last year, and started to bloom in late summer. But the outdoor plants, which were grown in direct morning sun with very bright indirect light the rest of the day, grew bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and didn't start setting buds until about the same time the indoor plants were already blooming. The outdoor plants have now been blooming for about 3 weeks. Here is the first of two photos of the outdoor plant; for more (and bigger) photos go to my Flickr album, http://www.flickr.com/photos/dctropics. Dale can tell us more about the parentage and background of this plant. xGloximannia is an intergeneric cross between Gloxinia and Seemannia; so far, the only Gloxinia parent that has been used for such crosses (that I know of) is G. perennis, although in theory one should be able to cross either G. (formerly Koellikeria) erinoides or G. (formerly Anodiscus) xanthophylla with Seemannia. John Boggan Washington, DC

Subject: [Gphiles] xGloximannia 'She's Dancing', second photo

Chas says: right click on this photo and open in new tab or window, you will get a much sharper copy of this picture than it appears above. also it's fun

Second of two photos. For larger versions and more views, go to my Flickr album at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dctropics. John Boggan Washington, DC

From Dale Martens:

Thank you, John, for sharing those photos!

I'm no longer growing that hybrid as I goofed and must have given all the rhizomes away. When I grew it on my stand with four, T-8 lights, I doubt it was taller than 12 inches. But that was the first time it grew and flowered. Since then I've heard it can be over 3 feet when grown outdoors or in a greenhouse. Dariane Joshlin entered it at a show and got a blue ribbon for it. Looking at her photo, it looks tall, but perhaps under two feet.

I had to double check my records on that cross as initially I recalled that Gloxinia perennis was the seed parent. It turns out I only got seeds on the (S. gymnostoma x S. purpurascens) x G. perennis cross, although I also made the reverse cross.

The attached photo shows the seed parent of my intergeneric which was a cross between Seemannia gymnostoma x S. purpurascens. The S. purpurascens was the "purple lip" one not the green one. I didn't keep that hybrid because I didn't think it was tremendously exciting. Well, I got several seedlings, all with various intensities of purplish color and shapes and didn't keep any.

For those who don't know what S. gymnostoma looks like, see the photo on Ron Myhr's Gesneriad Reference Web site:
http://www.gesneriads.ca/seemannia01.htm

Gloxinia perennis, the pollen parent, has large, scented flowers:
http://www.gesneriads.ca/gloxin14.htm I wanted the sort of minty scent of the Gloxinia perennis to come through to the seedling, but it didn't, unless John can smell it on his flowers.

My latest adventure is that I have seedlings from crossing S. gymnostoma x Gloxinella lindeniana unless it's an accidental selfing of the S. gymnostoma.

Dale doing the Happy Hybridizer's Dance in cold and windy Illinois