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Sinningia 'Butter and Cream' (Hardy Yellow and White Gloxinia) - A robust tuberous perennial forms a slowly spreading mound to 18 inches tall of soft hairy rounded olive-green leaves that have wavy margins. These leaves rise up from potato like tubers to about 1 foot tall and lay over later in the season to form a 3-foot-wide mass. In late spring to early summer are produced the 30-inch-tall unbranched inflorescences topped by pendulous tubular flowers that while in bud first open as yellow and then mature to pure white with 2 inch long tubes and nearly inch wide flared petals.
Plant in full sun (where it blooms best) to light shade in just about any soil or in a pot where its spreading nature can be controlled and irrigate regularly to sparingly and is best if on the dry side in winter when semi-deciduous. It is drought tolerant even when in active growth in a container. This plant is tolerant to cold temperatures possibly as low as 5° F - the tubers can be exposed to be shown off in a pot but then it is more sensitive to damage from cold temperatures. A very attractive long blooming plant that is attractive to hummingbirds.
The genus was named for Wilhelm Sinning (1792-1874) a gardener and botanist at the University of Bonn Botanical Garden. This hybrid was created by Dave Zaitlin of Kentucky in 2001. It resulted from crossing two South American species of Sinningia, the yellow flowering form of Sinningia aggregata from southern Brazil and Paraguay and the white flowering Sinningia tubiflora from Uruguay, Paraguay and north Argentina, which we also grow.
We received Sinningia 'Butter and Cream' in 2012 from Tony Avent who was growing it and many other Sinningia at his Plant Delights Nursery in Raleigh, North Carolina and first listed this hybrid in 2006. We spent 12 years building up stock and were first able to offer it for sale in 2024. We also grow other Sinningia, including the species and one parent of this hybrid, Sinningia tubiflora, a light pink hybrid called Sinningia 'Invasion Force' and a dark pink hybrid called Sinningia 'Lovely'.
This information about Sinningia 'Butter and Cream' displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.
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