Lipstick Plant Care Guide

This plant prefers bright, indirect light to promote blooming!

Keep your plant's soil consistently moist like a wrung out sponge but not soggy. Use your plant watering meter to gauge the moisture levels. Use tepid, unsoftened, filtered, bottled, or tap water sitting 24 hours to release the chemicals. Bottom water since the leaves lay on top of the soil. Let it sit in the bowl of water, checking with your meter when it is registering moist every fifteen minutes until the topsoil has moistened. (Do not let her sit for hours in the water.) Remove and let her drain thoroughly. Once the water is fully drained, place her back into the cache or decorative pot. Slow down watering in the winter months and back to normal in the spring when she's getting more light.

Although this one is from a native humid climate and will grow faster with higher humidity around it, average humidity levels at least 40% is adequate for this plant's needs.

To keep your plant blooming, avoid cooler temperatures under 70°F. If planted outside, sit her in the shade but give her brighter, indirect light. Beware; the sun will scorch her leaves!

To keep your plant blooming, avoid cooler temperatures under 70°F. If planted outside, sit her in the shade but give her brighter, indirect light. Beware; the sun will scorch her curly leaves!

Fertilize when watering twice a month in the spring and summer with a 1/2 strength water-soluble fertilizer high in phosphorus to encourage blooms. Drop back your fertilizing in the winter to just once a month.

Repot the Lipstick Plant in the early spring in a well draining soil mix with perlite. Bump up the diameter of your container by two inches and ensure it has adequate drainage holes. Add a piece of screen to keep the soil from spilling out but allowing drainage. Water the plant ahead of time to hydrate. Add the mix to the bottom of the new slightly larger container. Tease the roots if they are root bound in the pot. Carefully place it in the center, adding backfill around the edges. Leave a 1/2 inch of space between the soil and the top edge to prevent water spillage. Water thoroughly and let drain.

Prune the long vines of your Lipstick Plant to control her from looky twiggy. Also, you'll encourage new growth for the following year, which is where flower buds will develop. Only prune 25% of the branches at a time, so you don't miss out on the blooms!

Take several 6-8 inch stem cuttings in the early spring before buds have started forming. Use a knife or sharp pruners, and cut below a node on a softwood stem. Remove the bottom leaves to expose the nodes. Dip the ends in rooting hormone and plant in a mixture of 1/3 vermiculite or perlite and 3/4 regular potting mix. Water and loosely cover the cuttings with a large clear plastic bag to create some humidity around it. Continue to water, and give it the bright, indirect light. After 6-8 weeks, test to see if the roots have anchored. If so, you can remove them from the humidity tent and start to fertilize monthly.