These should be about the same. I have grown small speciosas from Smalls and they are nice and compact. I had a fully double one that I bought at a fund raising auction many years ago. I wonder if I still have it--hmmmmm????? It made leaves that were about four inches long, MOL. The California Minis are about the same size. I think you could do well with both. The California Minis were originally my contribution to the seed fund. I made a cross of two very good mini varieties--one a red with white throat semi peloric crossed to a very deep purple slipper type and sent in the seed from this F1 cross. Now, the seed is coming from people who grew on the originals. The color range was pink, red and purple slippers, semi-peloric and peloric flowers. They have been pretty popular, as the seed has needed to be replenished several times. These mini-speciosas are good for growing under lights where they can get strong light, such as under a four tube shelf or right under the lights on a two tube per shelf set up. They flower nicely in 3" pots in much less than a year (3-6 months??--I forget). I have one blooming now, grown on a window sill. Speciosas are very easy to grow from seed and easy to propagate. Leaves, stem cuttings and even spent flower pedicels w/calyx will propagate. Seed is very easy to set and germinates quickly. I think you will have fun with these,

Jon

PS: I made the cross and sent in the seed precisely for the purpose that growers could have a nice variety of mini gloxinias to grow on and pass around. They take up much less room than the standards and can produce a lot of flowers.

That's perfect. Thanks!
My seed order is almost ready. I thought I would limit myself to 10-15 varieties but as I keep looking at the seed fund list and pictures/descriptions on internet I now have a list of 20 plants that I hope will be interesting to grow from seed. I need more shelves...