How to Grow and Care for Anthurium Houseplants (Laceleaf)

Anthurium spp.

My favourite houseplant is the flamingo lily. It’s a sort of Anthurium, a genus that features about 825 species.

This explicit species, A. andraeanum, has heart-shaped spathes that add vibrant shade to my indoor decor with out demanding an enormous quantity of effort on my half.

I love colourful houseplants, notably at nighttime days of winter, and these have the added benefit of retaining their shade over the course of weeks, not days.

Plus, after they’re not displaying out in shades of pink, magenta, orange, or yellow, the shiny leaves are enticing on their very own.

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There are a number of different species of Anthurium you could come throughout, additionally being grown as tropical foliage houseplants, and they’re putting as effectively.

A few of these herbaceous perennials may be grown open air in USDA Hardiness Zones 10 and up.

However should you don’t reside the place it’s heat, you may nonetheless get pleasure from these splashy specimens indoors yr spherical, and that’s what I’ll give attention to right here.

Observe alongside to study concerning the non-flower “flowers” on many types and uncover find out how to maintain your anthurium wholesome all year long whenever you develop it indoors as a houseplant.

Right here’s what I’ll cowl:

Tropical vegetation that originated in tropical areas of North and South America, primarily Colombia and Ecuador, anthuriums are epiphytes.

This implies they’re air vegetation that develop within the wild on the floor of different vegetation through aerial roots.

They’re identified by numerous different widespread names equivalent to boy flower, flamingo flower, flamingo lily, laceleaf, and oilcloth flower.

Probably the most distinctive trait of sure anthurium species is the half that offers the plant its shade. They resemble flowers, and many people confer with them as such, however they aren’t actually flowers in any respect!

As a substitute, these vibrantly coloured, heart-shaped parts of an anthurium plant are literally modified leaf bracts generally known as spathes, much like what you’d see on peace lilies.

Spathes serve a protecting perform whereas the flowers are creating, and so they additionally assist to draw pollinators when the time is true.

A spadix, a brief inflorescence with a fleshy stalk, protrudes from the middle of the spathe.

That is the place the tiny flowers develop, organized in spirals across the outdoors, and these are so small you could barely see them.

One of the crucial colourful species grown indoors is my favourite, A. andraeanum, which grows about two toes tall and produces quite a few shades of coloured spathes.

One other is A. scherzerianum, which grows to about 18 inches tall and produces deep pink spathes which have red-orange spadices at their facilities.

This shade combo in all probability impressed this selection’s widespread title, flamingo flower, which is usually utilized to A. andraeanum as effectively.

A couple of different noteworthy anthurium species additionally produce spathes, however they’re minimal, and these varieties are grown extra for his or her putting foliage.

A. clarinervium, also referred to as the velvet cardboard anthurium, options deep inexperienced leaves with yellow-white contrasting veins.

A. crystallinum has the same look, with much less deeply lobed leaves.

One other selection that has followers amongst indoor gardeners is A. luxurians, although it’s uncommon and exhausting to seek out. It boasts puckered, leathery, darkish inexperienced leaves.

Regardless of their variations in look, you may anticipate all of the anthurium species you’re more likely to see out there for rising as houseplants to have aerial roots.

These are vital for climbing surfaces within the tropics, however function a approach to type new vegetation for propagation whenever you develop them indoors.

Whereas A. andraeanum is often related to the Hawaiian Islands in the present day, it didn’t really arrive there till 1889.

Samuel Mills Damon, the son of American missionaries, was a politician and banker within the Kingdom of Hawaii in the course of the nineteenth century, serving on the board of sugar plantations.

He inherited a big piece of land known as Moanalua from a Hawaiian princess and developed a part of it right into a botanical backyard crammed with many alternative species from around the globe.

Damon visited London for Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee and introduced again an anthurium plant for his assortment.