Transcript:
Today we’re going to talk about a common and beloved house plant and thurium, which is also known as Flamingo flower. Now this is actually a member of a large genus, which includes about 950 species throughout Central and South America, but there is estimated to be up to 2 000 species that are out there, most of which have not been identified or discovered yet, however, we’re really going to be speaking about the common ones that we see which more or less look like this one. Now you’ll notice that these plants have really beautiful heart-shaped leaves, and they have these vibrantly colored spates or Bracks and they could be in deep shades of Maroons or reds, like this one, almost black lavenders, Pinks, oranges, red and white, for example, now, typically, the ones that are cultivated and selected are from Anthurium, andreanu’m, like this one and ethereum antiochiensis in the United States, but also anthurium chesrienum throughout Europe and Asia. Now, Antherium antokiensis is typically found along stream bakes, and it has this upright, much thinner, more delicate space, Whereas Anthurium, andreanum and Anthurium chesrienum are more rainforest species growing as epiphytes, which means they are growing on trees but can also grow terrestrially and both have these larger spates and are the only two anthuriums That are scarlet now. Antherium Chesrinum has a notable curly Q spadex. It’s really cool, and that earns it the common name, pigtail and Thurium, but again it’s not commonly found here in the United States in widespread cultivation. Now, typically, these plants are bred both for the cut flower industry, And I think it actually may be the second largest cut flower in the world, but don’t quote me on that. But they’re also used in the potted plant market, which is what we’re going to be focusing on now. Generally, the ones selected for potted plants are more compact and they have more beautiful leaves. Now we’ll go over how to propagate these. But for the most part, these plants are produced by tissue culture now. When I paid a visit to the Netherlands, I toured Anthura, whose namesake may suggest that it’s. The largest producer of anthuriums and the production was a highly sophisticated and efficient system, which you could see in full in one of my previous episodes. If you’re the least bit curious and in the US, the production is like much more hands-on so to speak and one of the largest growers of anthurium silver chrome gardens in Florida took us through a tour of his facility. As well, so ill. Leave the link above for you to view. If you haven’t yet now as you may have guessed from the look of the inflorescences, these are related to another plant. I’ve highlighted here the spathophylum or pisilly, but unlike the peace Lily Flamingo, flowers seem to always be in flower and the reason why they are popular. Cut flowers is because even when they’re cut off their bracks and you know, their flowers tend to last a very long time, and when they’re attached to the rest of the plant, they could be in bloom for, like two to three months, so a pretty long time, then usually as one bloom fades, another one just bounces right out, and it also depends on the cultivar, though. So if you got one like this one that I have. This is a Hawaiian cultivar. I’m not even sure what it is, but it has this really big, beautiful space, but it doesn’t necessarily put out another one. It’s not as floriferous as this one, for instance, so getting them to rebloom again usually is not an issue. However, you’ll want to make sure that you’re giving them optimal light and fertilizer to ensure that they’re almost always in bloom. Now, typically in the greenhouse, they are grown in high light or bright light and certain studies show that in some cultivars, their space size was actually increased in lower light levels, but they get more flowers in higher light levels. So with that in mind, you can consider where you may want to actually place them in your home, but keep in mind that these species are typically in more dappled, like conditions in nature, so they’re usually growing on trees under the canopy, so possibly give a little bit more or less the same conditions indoors now, speaking of growing in tropical forest canopies and thuriums as you can imagine like to be on the warm side. So if you have a drafty window in the winter months, or if you have your antherium in front of your air conditioner? During the summer months, then it’s going to likely stress or harm the plant. It prefers to be well over 55 degrees Fahrenheit, which is more or less like 13 degrees Celsius and would prefer to be in that 70 to 90 degree range, which is 21 to 32 degrees Celsius. Though I do believe that this plant would love to be in far more humidity, it does have a relatively thick semi-waxy leaf, so you could really see that here, and I found it to be pretty resilient and average humidity indoors, so as I shared many of the cultivars that we are exposed to can be epiphytes, but they can also be terrestrial and most often you find these guys potted up in nursery pots. But over the years, I have seen them growing on rocks in water, propagation, arrangements and more, which shows that these are fairly adaptable. However, if you’re going to be growing your plant in a potting mix, then you’ll want something that is far more porous and aerated and typically, the growing medium is more or less equal parts. P perlite and some type of bark. So what I have here is some espoma, organic orchid and Bromeliad mix and some cactus mix. And I also have a little bit of perlite that I mixed in and this is more or less what it looks like so you could see that it. Has this nice airy mix to it with some of that fur bark? And this will also be great for a terrestrial plant or something. That’s more epiphytic so with fertilizing. You will want to make sure that these plants are fertilized. During the growing season. Doing a well-balanced fertilizer will be suitable and on a monthly basis should be fine. However, if you want to promote a little bit more of their inflorescences, then you could also go with usually an organic orchid fertilizer and this has a one three one. So phosphorus value usually promotes more blooming. Now let’s get down to propagation as I shared in the beginning. Anthuriums are primarily produced by tissue culture, but for the home gardener, you’ll likely be dividing your anthurium, which looks a little bit like this. So I have a couple anthurium here. Let’s move it out of this pot and let’s scrape as much of the dirt as possible away from it and we could see where we could actually divide this plant, so I’m just pulling it apart right here, and you can see that it’s already starting to divide from this clump. We could just work our fingers in there and again. This one really didn’t need to be divided. But I just want to show you what you would have to do. In order to actually propagate this plant. All right, so there you go, I’m going to tear this apart. So you have this little small plant right here, and then you have this big one and what I’m probably going to do is take this big one and re-pot this back in here, so I’m going to create a little hole a little divot in here and I’m going to put this back down in. This will actually have a little bit more space for these roots as well. I’m going to add a little bit more of this orchid. Mix to this. I need like a second pair of hands right now. Okay, all right, I’m going to use my scoop here because this is a much larger planter, and it’s going to be way more efficient if I use this. This is looking pretty good. I’m just going to add a little bit more layer of soil. I’m very tempted to use all the soil that I spilled right here, so I’m going to scoop this up with my hands and I’m just going to add that to the top. Okay, so there we go with that one. That one’s pretty much potted up, so let’s pot up the next one. Let’s see if this one or this one will be appropriate because this one’s a little bit taller. Yes, and I think I’m actually going to go with the taller one because these roots are quite long, and that will just give them a little bit more space down there. Now since this one doesn’t have any potting medium left. I’m going to add a little bit more of this succulent mix and you can see there’s already pretty good pearlite in there, but I might add a little bit more and I’ll add a little bit of a bark mix here, and I have some perlite here and this will just add a little bit more aeration. You don’t need to overdo it with that. I’m just going to mix this with my hands. Since they’re already pretty dirty and there you go, That’s what that mixture looks like, so I’m going to bring this down in here, just like that. Give about one to two inches and I’m going to drop this down in here and make sure that I’m not crushing any of the roots. I’ll probably need just a little bit more soil, so I’m going to make that mix again. And you could pretty much eyeball this. I mean, I’m going about 50 50 and because this bark mix is a little bit bulkier. You could go a little less with it as well. And a little sprinkle of perlite. Mix that in there, you go. Now, let’s get into some of the common problems that enthurians could have. They could have quite a few issues like too much light can start to bleach them too low of light and they may actually stop producing flowers altogether. Now they could also get bacterial and fungal blights, which means either removing those infected parts or composting the plant altogether. Now I haven’t had many pest pressures if at all growing Flamingo flower, but they are susceptible to a range of houseplant pests from aphids to mealy mealybugs to brown scale to thrips. So you do need to consider looking out for those. Now I go more into troubleshooting common houseplant problems in my houseplant master class online, If you’d like to learn more, but in the meantime. I hope this was a thorough, deep dive into anthurium. Care for you and was thoroughly fun to watch. Alright now! I’m going to be cleaning up. See you in the next episode. If you didn’t hear yet? We just released house plant basics, which is an introductory mini course for beginner, houseplant enthusiasts, The video based course, is set up to be both concise and comprehensive, and it serves as a perfect primer for our houseplant master class, which is a month-long course on houseplant care cultivation and more, you can find out more information on both courses at homesteadbrooklyncom or search for the courses in the description below .