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 like colourful houseplants, notably in the dead of night days of winter, and these have the added benefit of retaining their shade over the course of weeks, not days.

Plus, once they’re not exhibiting out in shades of crimson, magenta, orange, or yellow, the shiny leaves are engaging 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 hanging as properly.

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

However if you happen to don’t stay the place it’s heat, you possibly can nonetheless get pleasure from these splashy specimens indoors 12 months spherical, and that’s what I’ll concentrate on right here.

Comply with alongside to study in regards to the non-flower “flowers” on many types and uncover the right way to hold your anthurium wholesome all year long if 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 by way of aerial roots.

They’re recognized by varied different widespread names reminiscent of 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 of us 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, just like what you’ll 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 correct.

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 that you may barely see them.

One of the crucial colourful species grown indoors is my favourite, A. andraeanum, which grows about two ft 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 crimson spathes which have red-orange spadices at their facilities.

This shade combo most likely impressed this selection’s widespread title, flamingo flower, which is usually utilized to A. andraeanum as properly.

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

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

A. crystallinum has an identical look, with much less deeply lobed leaves.

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

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

These are essential for climbing surfaces within the tropics, however function a solution to kind new vegetation for propagation if you develop them indoors.

Whereas A. andraeanum is usually related to the Hawaiian Islands at the moment, it didn’t truly 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 referred to as Moanalua from a Hawaiian princess and developed a part of it right into a botanical backyard full of many alternative species from all over the world.

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