Growing Episcias from Seed

Episcias are tender tropical plants, with beautiful foliage and tubular flowers, natives of the American tropics. They are trailers and they make beautiful basket plants for the home or greenhouse. Flowers come in shades of blue or lavender, pure white, beautiful canary yellow, pink and red.

For a real thrill, grow a few of the tiny episcia seeds in a closed, sterile plastic dish, seed tray or bulb pan. Provide plenty of drainage in seed trays or bulb pans, and have holes large enough for good drainage in the plastic dishes. Cover these drainage holes with sphagnum moss. Vermiculite, peat moss and sand, or screened damp sphagnum moss all make ideal planting media.

Seed sowing is much less of a gamble than it was a few years ago. We have no fungus disease or damping off if we use sterile containers and vermiculite or screened sphagnum moss. Plants grown from seed are inexpensive and several different varieties will grow from a package of mixed seeds. Seedlings acclimate to surroundings and do not suffer the shock of shipping from one climate to another.

Episcia seeds do not need light to germinate, but they must have moisture and warmth. A closed container and even temperature are good insurance for quick germination. Sow seeds thinly. A dozen good, strong plants that have room to unfold their leaves are much better than two dozen crowded, weak plants. Sow the seeds on top of a damp planting medium. Do not cover the seeds. Place the top on the seed tray and do not remove unless the planting medium dries out. Leave the plants in this tray until the true leaves form and you are ready to transplant to flats or pots.

If the seed pan dries out, set it in a pan with 1/2 inch warm water and remove as soon as moisture begins to show on top of the planting medium. When two leaves are formed on seedlings, move to a window with good light, but very little, if any, direct sunlight. If you ,use fluorescent lights for growing plants, set the seedlings 6 to 8 inches from the tubes. Be sure to raise the cover of the seed tray a few minutes each day, gradually increasing the time until the top may be left off.

Transplanting Time

Transplant seedlings to flats or pots containing a good African violet type mix. A little crushed charcoal may be added to keep the soil sweet. Feed every ten days with a good commercial fertilizer, using at one half strength, and gradually increasing to full strength. In two to three months tiny stolons will appear, and plants will be ready for 3 inch pots.

Hybridizing Episcias

If you would like to cross a few of your own episcias, be sure the pollen is ripe. Make a test with your finger nail or a tooth pick. Yellow dust from the pollen sac will be visible on the tooth pick if ripe. Transfer the pollen to the pistil of the plant you wish to become the seed bearing parent. Early morning is an ideal time to pollinate. Be sure to label your cross so that you will be able to compare the seedlings to their parents.

Seed pods are small and oblong, usually about a half inch long and a quarter inch thick. They mature in eight to ten weeks and will turn brown as the seed ripen. Seed pods will burst and scatter seed if not watched closely. When they crack at the edge, remove the seed pod with stem attached and place in a protected, but open container to finish drying. Another method is to place a clear plastic bag over the seed pod and secure with a paper clip or rubber band, being careful not to break the stem. A stake may be used to brace the seed pod.

In seed received from the Canal Zone, I grew a seedling with small, light green leaves, almost the same color as the plain green-leaved episcia ‘Viridifolia’. However, it was only half as large, and it produced beautiful blossoms with canary yellow petals, a darker yellow throat, and slightly fringed edge.

Episcia dianthaflora is a compact plant with small leaves growing on delicate brown, trailing, woody stems. The beautiful deeply fringed white flowers come in late winter or early spring. This variety sets seed readily and makes a fine seed parent.

by H. Dillard

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