Ceropegias make up a large portion of our "Strings of Things" list, second only to the Senecio family. They are great at storing water in their leaves even when the soil is dry, so wait and watch for them to deflate a bit before watering. Give your ceropegias bright, indirect light and a warm room and they will most likely bloom... with perhaps some of the strangest flowers you'll ever have in your collection. Flowers appear at the nodes, where both leaves and roots also form. When the nodes touch soil, fleshy white bulbs develop and send down roots. A very intriguing way to propagate!
CEROPEGIA WOODII
Common Name: String of Hearts
Certainly the most iconic of the ceropegia clan, this basic woodii can be found in hanging baskets in many greenhouses. The heart shaped leaves give it its common name but you might also know it as the rosary vine.
C. WOODII VARIEGATA
Common Name: Variegated String of Hearts
A blushing version of the original, the variegated string of hearts has multicolored leaves. The cream portion of the leaf will turn pink given enough bright light.
C. LINEARIS
Common Name: String of Needles
Sometimes mistaken for the Hoya linearis, this ceropegia has long needle-like leaves. The flowers have the distinct ceropegia bloom shape but are much paler than the woodii’s magenta color.
C. WOODII 'HEARTLESS'
Common Name: String of Spades
Though a similar size to the string of hearts, the string of spades is, well, more spade-like than the classic rounded heart shape of its cousin. Both have that beautiful minty green and blue mottling on the leaves!
C. WOODII 'STRING OF ARROWS'
Common Name: String of Arrows
Care: The arrow shaped leaves on this vine are obviously related to the string of spades but the leaves are almost twice as large! They are also much lighter in color.
C. WOODII 'SILVER GLORY'
Common Name: Silver String of Hearts
Back to the classic heart shape of the woodii, ceropegia ‘Silver Glory’ has a truly stunning silver coloring with green at just the outer margins. The leaves are larger than the darker green woodii.
C. CIMICIODORA
Common Name: We didn’t find a common name, so we’d like to offer up “The Bed Bug Flower.”
Supposedly, the aroma of the C. cimiciodora is comparable to that of squished bed bugs (cimicidae). We aren’t going to fight anyone on that description as we have no interest in getting close to bed bugs, squashed or not! But what a beautiful shade of lime that star shaped flower has.
C. SANDERSONII
Common Name: Parachute Plant
The giant bloom on this ceropegia has one of zaniest pollination strategies we’ve come across! Besides being breathtaking sculpturally, the flower of C. sandersonii mimics the pheromone put off by an attacked bee. When bee-preying flies (kleptoparasitic) come to check out the action, they are lured into pollinating the flower. To learn more about this incredible phenomenon, click here for a great article.
C. HAYGARTHII
Common Name: Lantern Flower
The small, nondescript green leaves on thick vines might have you pass on this plant but just look at those flowers! Almost two inches long, these blooms are shaped like purple polka dotted funnels, with neon green inside and the cutest pink ‘hat’ on top.
C. STAPELIIFORMIS
Common Name: Snake Creeper
Behaving like the name suggests, this ceropegia creeps in a serpentine fashion, out of your hanging basket or winding up a trellis. What leaves it does develop, fall off shortly and so this plant is mostly vine. In a complete reversal to C. woodii, this plant is not treasured for its foliage, but for the fascinating blooms.
Gulley Greenhouse carries quite a few different ceropegias and you can find them in our store, or, on our website!