Lipstick plant

[pikevi]

I bought this plant in early summer because of its name-Lipstick plant

Later I found out the botanical name is Aeschynanthus pulcher.

I found some flowers on it today but the flowers seems to be just sepals. The pictures on the 'net show beautiful petals. I am not sure if this a different species and that is all I am going to get as flowers.

Does anyone else have this plant?

Thank you.

[flowerchild]

Pikevi I have had this plant before, you should get more flowers than that, and the middle should come out like a lipstick out of its tube. Good luck with that I have never had any luck growing those!!! Cindy aka flowerchild

[MrsConnie]

Ooh it sounds like an interesting plant, the kind I would want..."lipstick plant" and how it looks like one out of its tube...brilliant! isnt nature wonderful!

[pikevi]

Thanks, flowerchild.

I think it is hard to grow them. I am fairly successful with plants but this one is not growing well. In the last last 3 months it just gave these 4 flowers

And that too without 'petals'.

Is its origin Trinidad or Tibet? I got different info from the internet. If it is from Tibet , may be it is not cool enough for it here.

MissConnie: Yes, the flowers come in bunches as seen on the 'net. And they look so pretty when the whole plant is full of them.

[sandra]

Can't say I've ever heard of these pikevi, sorry but if I ever saw one, I probably wouldn't pass it by either.

[pikevi]

sandra: It is supposed to flower in abundance and the whole plant is supposed to be covered with flowers. I have a total of 4 individual flowers . A big deal

It is not doing that well outside. I am not sure if I should have kept it inside.

I am posting a photo of the whole plant to show the original leaves which are big and dark green and the new ones, which are progressively smaller and paler. I am sure it not due to lack of fertilizer.

[sandra]

pikevi, my search turned up some interesting info on lipstick plants. I just learned these are native to Florida and it took my Canadian friend here for me to find out about these! Mucho gracias!

http://www.bachmans.com/tipsheets/in...stickPlant.cfm

http://mrec.ifas.ufl.edu/Foliage/folnotes/lipstick.htm

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...37/ai_14651241

[Tobi]

Pikevi,
They have many of these guys in the nurseries around here. I was looking at
getting some type of hanging plant for my 4 season room near my south window.
The tropical expert at one of the nurseries told me that it needs bright light
(not too much direct sun) and good humidity and air circulation. From what
I remember, Most of them didn't have a ton of flowers on them, but what
they had sure were pretty.

[pikevi]

Thanks for the URLs sandra. The first one is very informative. I know some of the mistakes I made. For starters, I will have to move it to another location where the humidity is high.

In one of the sites that sandra gave it says the plant is sold for its foliage!

I thought I was getting a beautiful flowering plant.

Check this url pl.:

http://downtheroad.org/Asia/images/Winky2/DSC04967.JPG