Welcome to Garden Web and specifically the gesneriad forum.

Lipsticks like good light, to be kept moist, with a slight drying out between watering (I refer to this as "lightly moist"), a good airy type potting mix, and to be fertilized lightly during the year. Then it takes patience, since the plant may have a season for flowering, though regular lipsticks will flower at any time. They like to flower after they finish a growth cycle, blooming from the tips. So, a hard pruning could prevent a flowering. Generally if the plant is healthy and growing well it will eventually start flowering.

I second the light. I have 2, one started from the other one. Placed 2 feet away from each other, one blooms, the other doesn't. The difference? One is in front of the window, the other is beside the window.

I'm having a little problem with my lipstick plant. It's dropping leaves like crazy! I've had it for about six months now, and it has spent its summer inside my patio doors(southern exposure with a big maple tree to give some shade). Now that the leaves are gone on the maple it's getting more direct light but the sun is alot weaker.I would like it to flower(it hasn't yet), so what am I doing wrong?

i read online that the lipstick plant wont bloom till its "MATURE" and not to repot them cause it being root bound some how triggers it to flower.. i bought mine from winn dixie a few months ago and it hasnt flowered yet..bought it seems to attract flies really bad..i sprayed it with the Bayer insecticide and it helped alot but does anyone know WHY they attract flies or am i the only one with this problem????

Thanks, fellow lipstick plant owners. I read all of your comments, and have applied all of your wisdom. There's still no flowers, but I'm keeping the faith, in hopes that this August (2004) will be the month I see color hanging from my plant. Also, I'm somewhat tempted to repot the two plants I own, but instead of advancing the size of the pot, I might reduce the size of the pots. This way the plants' roots will be more crowded, thereby hastening the "potbound" environment, since potbound is the condition which precedes the blooming.

Joyce in Connecticut
akiba37@aol.com

Wannabee, do you mean white flies? or the black ones. If it's the black I would suspect your potting soil. The white flies can be rid of with yellow paper smeared with vaseline. Put it on a stick to place into the soil. The flies will stick to it and die, how cruel! Works better than insecticide. White flies are attracted to yellow. Cleaned up the flies on my tangerine tree a couple of years ago. They came over from an infestation from zucchini which I had to pull out prematurely one summer. Any other flies, I have no answer. I've had a lipstick plant in the same yard and nary a fly around it.