With vibrantly coloured, tubular flowers and plush cascades of shiny inexperienced foliage, lipstick vines (Aeschynanthus spp.) are simply cultivated tropical beauties that brighten any indoor setting.
Together with vibrant, oblique mild and persistently moist however well-draining soil, common grooming and pruning periods assist them to look their finest.
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Normally, these are low-maintenance crops however in some environmental circumstances they’ll change into skinny and leggy, or overgrown and tangled.
A little bit hands-on consideration with a superb pair of snips can rapidly restore your crops to their elegant, draping silhouette.
A lightweight pruning additionally encourages new progress, producing verdant stems dense with opulent leaves and loads of vibrant, daring flowers!
And with the precise care, your lipstick plant will reward you with an nearly fixed show of vibrant blooms and a trailing behavior that appears beautiful tumbling from hanging baskets, plant stands, cabinets, or fanned on a trellis.
Are you and your snips good and sharp? Then let’s minimize to the chase on easy methods to prune and groom lipstick vines.
Right here’s what you’ll discover forward:
Pruning and Grooming Lipstick Vines
Deadheading Spent Flowers
Lipstick vines are liked for his or her waxy inexperienced foliage and tubular flowers in shades of crimson, magenta, mauve, flame orange, pink, and yellow.
They flower year-round in superb lighting, however the heaviest shows are usually in spring and summer time.
These tropical perennials are thought of simple to take care of, and you may be taught extra about easy methods to domesticate them in our information to rising lipstick vines.
Deadheading spent flowers isn’t obligatory for plant well being or vigor, however it does assist to take care of a well-groomed look.
To maintain your crops wanting their finest, take away flowers as quickly as they fade.
Use clear, sharp snips or scissors to chop the peduncle – the flower’s stalk – near a set of leaf buds on the stem.
For delicate duties like grooming houseplants, I like to make use of snips which are simple to deal with with robust, sharp blades.
These Fiskars Softouch Micro-Tip Pruning Snips are a sensible choice for exact work.
Fiskars Softouch Micro-Tip Pruning Snips
You could find them out there by way of Amazon.
Spring Revival
Together with their glamorous flowers, lipstick vines have extremely enticing foliage in shades of kiwi, moss, and forest greens that may be variegated or speckled as properly.
The thick elliptic or ovate leaves have a waxy end offering a good-looking sheen, and like all houseplants, they want an occasional cleansing.
An accumulation of mud and family particles on the leaf surfaces can inhibit the method of photosynthesis inflicting stunted progress or lack of flowering.
When you can mud and wipe the leaves with each change of season, your vines will find it irresistible.
However for those who’re not that bold about cleansing houseplants (like me!), a upkeep session in early spring may help to revive crops and restore their sparkle.
Use a material moistened with clear water and wrung out to softly wipe down the leaf surfaces, cleansing each prime and backside floor areas.
I discover that the tender nap of a microfiber cleansing material does a superb job on houseplant foliage, they usually wash up properly after use.
Microfiber Cleansing Cloths
You could find microfiber cleansing cloths from Amazon Fundamentals by way of Amazon.
On the identical time, take away any useless leaves or broken stems and verify for potential pest issues, like spider mites.
After your crops are clear and glossy, it’s a good time to stake or trellis your vines for those who’d like to advertise upright progress.
Trellising and Staking
Lipstick vines develop 12 to 24 inches tall and path or unfold 12 to 48 inches, which makes them enticing as hanging crops.
However they can be educated for upright or climbing progress through the use of houseplant stakes or a small trellis – one other nice method to showcase their showy leaves and flowers!
Coaching the vines is simple. Simply present them with appropriately sized assist, then gently carry the stems and dangle them in place.
It’s possible you’ll want to make use of small orchid clips or plant velcro to assist safe the stems in place as a result of Aeschynanthus aren’t climbers, they’re danglers.
They don’t twine, twist, or use suction pads to achieve skywards – of their native surroundings, these epiphytic species droop down gracefully from host bushes or cracks in rock faces.
Coaching them onto helps additionally helps to maintain the air circulating freely by the foliage and retains the stems tidy, stopping them from overlapping or getting tangled.
For vining houseplants, I like to make use of “twig” plant stakes – their peak is adjustable and the little branches are perfect for looping stems over, plus they discreetly mix into the background.
Twig Plant Sticks
You possibly can decide up a six-pack of adjustable Twig Plant Sticks, full with orchid clips and plant ties, at Amazon.
Pruning for Form and Dimension
Normally, lipstick vines don’t require loads of pruning – a spring cleanup is normally all that’s wanted to revive a lovely look.
Wholesome crops frequently develop new vines on the base, filling out and spreading into a lovely sample with none assist.
However over time, the older stems can change into sparse and naked, producing few flowers.
Or they’ll go the opposite means, and change into tangled into shaggy, overgrown drapes with irregular flower manufacturing.
A lightweight pruning each few years is a simple method to restore appearances and promote dense, full crops.
It additionally helps to enhance the flower depend, and by various the size of the stems, flowers are distributed all through the plant, not simply on the decrease extremities.
Flower buds develop on the suggestions of latest stems, so watch out to not prune in spring otherwise you’ll cut back the variety of blooms the plant will produce.
One of the best time to prune is after the plant stops flowering, normally from late summer time to early fall.
And don’t anticipate winter to prune them both – snipping the vines whereas they’re nonetheless in an energetic progress part helps to stimulate new progress. And new progress means extra flowers!
Earlier than you begin chopping, resolve on the general profile you need, then select the stems to work with.
Remember to restrict your pruning to take away no a couple of third of the size of the stems at one time to keep away from shock. If you wish to minimize them again additional, give your plant a few months to recuperate earlier than pruning once more.
Begin by eradicating useless or broken stems and leaves which are dry or yellowing. At all times use clear, sharp snips or scissors for this and keep away from tugging at useless materials which might simply dislodge the shallow roots.
Start pruning by chopping again stems with a lightweight contact, then after making the primary cuts, step again to verify the form of your work.
Determine which stems, if any, want extra discount and re-trim till you obtain the specified look.
Make your cuts just under a leaf bud or node to encourage branching and promote a full, bushy look.
As a bit aspect observe, in case your vines are hanging down, the minimize will probably be just under a leaf or leaf node. But when your vine is rising upright, the minimize can be above the leaf or node.
Whichever route the stem is pointing, you wish to retain the leaf or leaf node closest to the minimize finish as a result of that is the place lateral branching emerges from!
In case your crops don’t want pruning however you’d like a fuller form, pinch or trim out the information of chosen stems to encourage lateral branching.
Use your snips to trim the stem just a few inches from the tip, chopping just under a leaf or leaf node.
Propagate the Cuttings
Lipstick vines are finest propagated by stem cuttings, so for those who’d like extra crops, use the minimize stems out of your pruning session for propagation!
Take four-inch sections from the information of a wholesome stem and take away the decrease leaves.
Rooting stem cuttings in soil is a dependable propagation technique, however isn’t at all times one hundred pc profitable, so take a few further cuttings in case some fail to root.
Dip the stripped ends right into a rooting hormone powder if desired.
Insert the stripped finish into small pots three-quarters filled with moistened starter soil, firming the soil gently across the stems to maintain them in place. Three or 4 cuttings are appropriate for every four- to six-inch pot.
To root stem cuttings, I like to make use of a potting combine that gives good soil aeration. Tank’s-Professional Lite Seeding and Potting Combine has coconut coir and perlite for lofty soil that doesn’t compact.
Tank’s-Professional Lite Seeding and Potting Combine
You could find Tank’s-Professional Lite out there at Arbico Organics.
Place the pots in a location that receives vibrant, oblique mild and temperatures between 60 and 70°F.
Preserve the soil frivolously moist and roots will type in 4 to eight weeks.
Take away any stems that did not root and transplant the wholesome ones into particular person pots after they’re 12 weeks previous.
Showy Tropicals
Lipstick vines are prized for his or her enticing foliage, swish vines, and vibrant, tubular flowers – showy and simply cultivated tropicals that effortlessly brighten our houses.
And to maintain your crops wanting their finest, deadhead spent blooms frequently and provides the foliage a spring cleansing to revive appearances.
To maintain the stems in verify, prepare them over stakes or a trellis for a singular, upright look or give them a lightweight pruning after flowering to handle overgrown, shaggy vines, and to advertise extra flowers.
And don’t overlook, it’s quick and simple to start out new crops from the trimmed vines!
Any questions on easy methods to groom or prune your lipstick vines? Drop us a line within the feedback part beneath.
And for extra flowering houseplant know-how, add these guides to your studying checklist subsequent:
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