Indoor Gardening and Houseplants: Love Is Like A Butterfly :), 1 by artcons

artcons wrote:
Hi All,
I came across this thread by accident.
I had been googling for a Cristia obcordata, butterfly plant when this thread popped up.
The plant you have been discussing is a Red Butterfly Wing, Christia vespertilionis. I have them growing in my yard and nursery. Here is a Dave's link to the plant http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/113737/index.html

Fort Lauderdale is in zone 10b, a sub tropical climate (10b) which is what they prefer.

I can't help you with your problems trying to grow them indoors, but I will say when I got my first one, I treated it like it was something special. That didn't work. I was lucky in that it went to seed so I was able to reproduce it.

I belong to a local garden club, the SF Galloping Gardeners. I passed this plant on to anyone in our group wanting them. One of the members grew it outside in the full sun and it went to over three feet. Because of his success, I planted mine in the yard too. They grow like crazy out there in the warmer humid months.

They should be treated as an annual. They make lots of seeds that are usually potent.

I enclosed an earlier picture of one in my nursery.

Art