The lipstick plant is also known as Aeschynanthus radicans. It is an interesting plant. But do lipstick plants really need sun!
In this article, I will answer this question in detail. Plus I will tell you what will happen if a lipstick gets too much light. And what happens if it gets little light.
And what exactly should you do about the lighting for your lipstick plant. But before diving deep into the details I will put the answer for our main question as simple as this: Do lipstick plant needs sun? lipstick plant needs bright but indirect sunlight in order to grow well and have healthy and abundant blooms throughout the entire year.
Keep reading to know why lipstick plants need sunlight and what to do in case you don’t have the required sunlight in your indoor place.
Why lipstick plant needs sunlight
All plants need sunlight in order to perform the Photosynthesis process. Photosynthesis is the process of converting water and carbon dioxide into food.
Such a process needs energy. Here the role of the sunlight. Sunlight provides the required energy for lipstick to produce its food (Sugar).
Therefore lipstick or any other houseplant will not survive in complete darkness.
But the good news is that the lipstick plant can benefit from grow light manufactured specially to mimic the sunlight.
What type of light lipstick plant needs
Lipstick vine is native to the rainforests. They grow in the rainforest under the shade of tall trees.
They climb those trees. Therefore they don’t get direct sunlight in their native environment.
Rather they get filtered sunlight (indirect sunlight). But they climb in the rainforest in order to get the most brighter light.
In the end, it will be indirect sunlight because they can’t grow higher than the rainforest trees.
Remember successful gardening is about understanding how plants live in their native environment, then trying to mimic those conditions.
Now you understand that your plant needs bright but indirect sunlight in order to be in its best shape and bloom throughout the whole year.
Also, it is important to understand that direct sunlight will burn your plant’s leaves. While low light or darkness will make your lipstick plant wilting and drop its leaves.
Outdoor sunlight for a lipstick plant
You can grow your lipstick plant outdoors successfully as long as it does not get direct sunlight.
And the outdoor temperature does not fall below 60 F. Temperature below 60 F will make it hard for the lipstick plant to bloom.
While temperature below 50 F will cause the death of your plant. Choose a location that gets indirect sunlight.
Although lipstick will tolerate and love morning direct sunlight. But not the afternoon one.
Indoor light for Lipstick plant
If you plan to grow your lipstick plant indoor choose a location that gets bright but indirect sunlight.
For me, I put my lipstick plant in a north-facing window. It has direct morning sunlight. while it has indirect bright sunlight for the rest of the day.
Remember to let good space between the window glass and the pot as the glass heat can burn the plant leaves.
But what if you don’t have access to bright indirect sunlight indoor!
In such a case you have one option is to invest in grow light. The grow light will be a valuable asset. Because most other houseplants will need it.
In conclusion
In this article, I hope I answered the question: does a lipstick plant need sunlight. Simply all plants need some kind of light in order to survive and thrive. And lipstick plant is not an exception.
However, lipstick plants only need bright indirect sunlight. And it does not tolerate complete darkness nor direct sunlight.
Grow light can be as effective as indirect sunlight in case your location doesn’t have the required lighting.