Hi, I have a bunch of seeds that I would like to trade for a decent size goldfish/Candycorn plant or a decent size lipstick plant. Please let me know if you are interested. Gardengal11

This is one of the reasons I very much dislike the names Lipstick Plant, Goldfish Plant and Guppy Plant. These names are used interchangeably with aeschynanthus columnea and nematanthus respectively. The problem comes when people don't use that convention. I've bought columneas that were labeled as a Lipstick Plant when convention is that a Lipstick Plant is an aeschynanthus. I have seen columneas and nematanthus both labeled as goldfish plants. This is why am so much in favor of using Latin names when referring to plants. This is a specially true when it comes to these three species of plants in the Gesneriad family. Will07, I really believe that your plant is a nematanthus. If I had to guess it would be Nematanthus 'Bijou'. Don't quote me on it, but I think it's either that hybrid or a hybrid very close to it. Larry

So far I've had 3 varieties of stapelias bloom and none have been stinky. I was expecting them to smell like my Voodoo lilies which I made the mistake of planting near my front door when I first planted them years ago. It was horrible. It smelled like I was hiding a corpse in my foyer! lol I don't think that epi fruit is edible. It does have a slight sweet scent but the texture is just too nasty to even think about tasting. I'm not even looking forward to separating out the seeds. I grow a bunch of plants from seed that take forever to bloom. It's just so cool when they finally do flower. My problem is that I grow a little bit of everything and some varieties more then a little bit. Space and my utility bills are a big problem in the winter. I've always grown tropical plants but when I stopped working my collection really got out of hand. Just ask my family. lol Karyn

The coloring up of the leaves is a good sign but doesn't have anything to do with the plant's blooming cycle. It indicates that the plant is getting good light, and cool temperatures. But, that is a good sign for flowering as well. Nematanthus are quite hardy, doing well outdoors in my cool sub-tropical winter climate. They even flower all winter, in temperatures that only briefly dip into the upper 30's, and warm into the 50's and low 60's during daylight. The seem to like regular watering, feedling and good humidity for flowering. In my dry summers, I can't seem to get them to flower well. It may be that they dry out too quickly and I don't water them enough. Or it may be a more direct consequence of low humidity triggering a non-flowering period. In their native habitat the low humidity season would be in winter, whereas here it is in summer. On the coast here, the summer temperatures are cool and humid, and nematanthus are even easier to grow there. In the late 70's my best friend was hybridizing nematanthus and his hybrids are still being grown. He was aiming for a dense ever-blooming compact type plant. His hybrids have small flowers, close to the stem, and small shiny foliage. They include 'Christmas Holly', 'Black Gold', 'Freckles', 'Saturn'. The first two are the most commonly seen. Black Gold has dark bronzy foliage and light orange flowers. His hybrids were based primarily on gregarius and wettsteinii. Personally I especially like the oddballs of the nematanthus group--those with big flowers on long dangling pedicels (up to 6" long). But these are big growers, with big leaves, spare branching, and needing of a goodly amount of space. Of these, the species, fluminensis, crassifolia and brasiliensis are the best. Fritchii is another--its flowers are a little smaller than these three but dangle on very long pedicels. The first has beautiful large dark glossy succulent leaves with a big maroon blotch on the backs. Its flowers are bright yellow on 1" pedicels. Grown with lots of pinching makes a choice specimen. With nematanthus you must be patient. They may not flower for a year or two and then suddenly burst into heavy bloom for a very long season. Meanwhile, enjoy the foliage. I grow mine in sizes up to 8" baskets. Jon