The elegant Anthurium andreanum, or flamingo flower, has been in cultivation for nearly a hundred years.
Still, it never fails to cause a sensation, whether you see it for the first time or have lived with it for years. You just don’t take such striking beauty for granted.
Aristocrat Of Anthuriums
This aristocrat of anthuriums has the showiest flower of all the species. To be correct, the spathe makes the show, which may be pure white, pink, rose, dark red, or orange. It is a leafy bract but so stiff and heavy that it looks like it was made of patent leather.
Oddly enough, you admire it because it looks so artificial. The true flowers are tiny and are massed along the column like a spadix that protrudes from the spathe.
Anthuriums are especially treasured because of their long-lasting quality as cut flowers. They hold up well in a vase for four to six weeks; on the plant, they last even longer —ten weeks or more.
How To Cultivate Anthuriums
A. andreanum is not an easy plant to cultivate indoors, but I have several friends who have been doing it for years, even in Stearn-heated New York apartments, so it certainly can be done.
Prepare Potting Medium
First, ensure your plant is potted in a loose, porous mixture such as equal parts rich loam, peat moss, and coarse sand (or Perlite). If you are an orchid grower and have osmunda on hand, you can use that alone for anthuriums.
Supply Moisture
For success with this anthurium, you must supply plenty of moisture. Syringe the foliage every day and keep the soil mixture slightly moist — though not soaking wet because you can rot anthuriums despite their high moisture requirements.
Put Out Aerial Roots
As anthuriums grow, they put out aerial roots from the stalk. See that these roots are covered with sphagnum moss, which retains all the moisture the roots need. If you leave the roots exposed, they become dry stubs. As a result, the plant suffers and may die.
Schedule Heavy Feeding
Schedule heavy feeding during warm weather. Fertilize every two weeks, alternating fish emulsion and a 30-10-10 orchid fertilizer. A flower appears with each new leaf, and the larger the leaf, the larger the flower.
Brightest Light Needed
Contrary to common belief, anthuriums do not like total shade. Plants grow little with insufficient light, and leaves and flowers remain small.
Give the brightest light you can get indoors, but no direct sun. Let the color and size of the heart-shaped leaves be your guide.
You have nothing to worry about if they come out large and a good, healthy green. If they begin to yellow, the light is too strong. In summer, set plants out under a tree that casts a filtered light.
They will be easier to water, and the free air circulation will do them wonders. A slat house, of course, is ideal if you have one, and they will take 50% to 60% percent sun.
Temperature
A. andreanum tends to rest in winter, but some plants continue growing and flowering in a greenhouse where the temperature goes no lower than 55° degrees Fahrenheit. This is much lower than any book tells you, but I am only passing on information from my experience.
Should your plant decide to rest, and you can tell this if it stops putting out new leaves, run it a little drier (but never bone dry) and hold off feeding until it starts to grow again.
Propagation By Seed Is Tricky
Your best bet is vegetative propagation, a must if you have a fine variety you want to come true. Anthuriums make offsets, which can be separated from the parent plant as soon as they develop their roots.
Pull plants apart gently, the same way you do daylilies. Pot them in the same mixture already recommended, and they should begin to flower in two years.
Flamboyant Anthurium Scherzerianum
Less well known but almost as flamboyant—and easier to grow as a houseplant—is A. scherzerianum, which you can call either pigtail or question-mark anthurium if you prefer. The spadix curls above the scarlet spathe to suggest the common names.
This species is much smaller than andreanum and considerably less fussy about moisture and humidity requirements. Use the same soil mixture as for andreanum, but there is no need to keep it moist. Water when it dries out.
Pigtail is good for anywhere in the country except South Florida, where it flowers indifferently because of the heat.
Flowers last a good eight to ten weeks while a new leaf (and flower) is being made up, and the brilliant scarlet is a cheerful note in any decor.
Handsome Anthurium Podophyllum
Besides these two showy-flowered anthuriums, many species are worth growing just for their foliage (because the inconspicuous greenish spadix often goes unnoticed). One of the most handsome is the rat-tail or A. podophyllum.
The lacy, deeply cut leaves have a leathery texture but a delicate appearance that contrasts finely with heavy-foliaged dieffenbachias and philodendrons.
A. podophyllum is remarkably drought resistant and should not suffer even for two weeks while you are away on vacation. It is slow growing, and you can keep it in a six-inch pot for years with an annual top-dressing of fresh soil mixture.
If seeds form, just throw them on top of the soil in the pot and keep them moist and shaded. And when they germinate, with roots up in the air, put in individual thumb pots in the usual porous mixture.
Try Anthuriums
Try these three anthuriums, and then there are dozens of others you can go on to, such as:
- A. huegelii, lushly tropical with huge leaves in a large rosette;
- A. aemulum, a lovely climber with delicate, finger-shaped leaves, and tolerant of considerable cold, although not to 18 degrees, as once thought;
- A. crystallinum, with velvety green leaves veined silver, is magnificent if you can keep them that way.
Anthuriums are individuals, and it isn’t possible to set down blanket rules for managing all species, which you should find an alluring challenge.
44659 by Elvin Mcdonald