Gone Gardenin’: Lipstick plant ‘Mona Lisa’ seductive

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/01/2012 (4483 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Every once in a while coincidences occur which get me thinking about a plant — often a fairly common plant — that I haven’t given much thought to for a long time.

Such was the case recently and I got to thinking about an old favourite houseplant that I haven’t grown for years.

I was in Lindenberg’s in Brandon a while back and as I always do when in that particular establishment, I looked with interest through the many houseplants that sit and hang in front of their large south-facing window.

A hanging plant sporting lovely clusters of burgundy flowers soon captured my attention, and it turned out to be a new variety of the lipstick plant called ‘Mona Lisa’.

My wife then announced that as she had been walking downtown that very morning she had noticed a blooming lipstick plant through a window in a house down the street.

The next day I phoned to see if I could come and take some pictures — the owners are fellow Horticultural Society members and good friends, so how could they say no?

Armed with photos of the plant in Lindenberg’s and the ones taken of the plant in my friends’ window, I had enough ammunition to write a column about this quite common but most beautiful house plant. Inspiration comes in many forms!

The lipstick plant used to always have bright red, tubular blooms born in clusters near the ends of its pendulous stems. Recently hybrids have been developed with variously coloured blooms, such as burgundy.

Lipstick plant foliage is dark green and glossy and the leaves have hard surfaces; I think such hard-surfaced plants are resistant to insect pests and this plant lives up to that reputation.

The arching stems hang down about 50 centimetres or so — this is not an overly big plant, so it can be easily accommodated in the average home, perhaps hanging in front of a kitchen window.

Lipstick plants like lots of sun; in fact, my friends’ plant is hanging in front of a south-facing window and is thriving and in full bloom.

Although lipstick plants produce bloom for most of the year, they bloom most profusely in fall and early winter.

Surprisingly, this plant is related to the streptocarpus (cape primrose) and the African violet, neither of which has hard-surfaced leaves. Like their cousins, however, they like warm temperatures and consistent water.

The plants originate in tropical areas and are commonly seen in the West Indies and South America as well as in Malaysia in the eastern hemisphere. Its fondness for warm temperatures is thus very understandable.

A lipstick plant should be watered often enough to keep the soil moist but not soggy. Watering with room-temperature water is preferred, and a liquid fertilizer added to the water will keep the plant producing an abundance of bloom as well as lots of new growth.

The plant will be more substantial and bushier if it is pinched back frequently. Some gardeners pinch their lipstick plants back quite severely in late spring when the bloom is most scarce.

The older varieties of lipstick plants had either pure red blooms or red blooms with yellow throats. Now that I have seen a burgundy cultivar, I will be on the lookout for other unique colours as no doubt plant hybridizers are at work developing newer versions of this old favourite.

If you have a sunny window and want a plant that is virtually ever-blooming, perhaps you too will have your interest in this old favourite rekindled.

I barely resisted the urge to buy the burgundy specimen … but then, I am going to Brandon next week … and maybe …

Albert Parsons is a consultant for garden design and landscaping who lives in Minnedosa.

» communitynews@brandonsun.com