Anthurium Care Guide – Uplifers

Anthurium is an exotic houseplant with large red flowers and bright and colorful leaves. The parts of the anthurium that look like flowers are actually brightly colored leaves that attract insects in the wild. The flower of the plant is a structure made up of many tiny flowers in the center of these colorful leaves.

Although there are over 1,000 varieties of Anthurium, it can be said that Anthurium andreanum, which has heart-shaped leaves and showy flowers, is the most commonly considered. Although this variety of anthurium has red, pink and white leaves, plants with green, yellow and lilac leaves can be found. Everything that interests you about anthurium and what tricks you should pay attention to in caring for anthurium, you can read in this article.

What is Anthurium?

Anthurium is a perennial herbaceous plant native to South America and the Caribbean. Anthurium grows outdoors where the climate is warm, but it can also be grown as a houseplant if well cared for. Anthuriums, also called flamingo flowers with their bright red, green and white leaves, are one of the most ideal indoor plants. Anthuriums that need high humidity and high temperatures can live indoors for 5 years when the right conditions are provided, but you can grow your plant for years by propagating your plant. The general features of anthurium are as follows:

• botanical name: Anthurium spp.
• Family: aroid
• Type: herbaceous, perennial
• Dimensions achieved in adulthood: 30-45 cm high, 20-30 cm wide
• Easy request: Partial
• Soil request: well-drained soil
• soil pH: sour
• Flowering time: four seasons
• flower color: red, pink, white
• Toxicity: It is toxic to humans and pets.

How to care for anthurium?

Anthurium grows in a humid, warm and bright environment, as it is a plant of a tropical climate. Providing conditions like this when looking at an anthurium indoors is important for good plant growth. The points that you need to pay attention to when considering the anthurium indoors are as follows:

easy request

Anthuriums need a lot of sunlight, but they must receive light indirectly. Direct sunlight on the plant can cause leaf burns. The fact that the plant is in an environment with insufficient sunlight can lead to slower growth, fading color and reduced flowers. For this reason, you need to place the plants in a location where they can receive at least 6 hours of indirect sunlight each day.

soil request

When choosing an anthurium soil, care should be taken to include materials such as sawdust, perlite, pumice, and sand to ensure good drainage. If you think the soil is too wet because the anthurium roots shouldn’t stay wet for long, you can add cactus soil to the pot to help drain the water.

water request

You can tell when it’s time to water your anthuriums when the top few inches are dry. Water the plant thoroughly when it dries out and stop watering when water starts to run out of the drainage holes. The more light and heat a plant receives, the more water it will need. So every few days check if the soil is dry. When a plant is very thirsty, its leaves wither or shrivel. While anthuriums need frequent watering during the hot months, you don’t need to water as much during the winter months.

temperature request

Although anthuriums love high temperatures, they can adapt to different conditions and grow at home. However, you should be careful not to put the plants in a place where the temperature rises or falls too much. Anthuriums may stop growing when room temperatures drop too low, and plants may wilt when temperatures get too high. For this reason, you must provide an average temperature for the plants.

moisture requirement

Anthuriums are moisture-loving plants. So if the indoor humidity level is below 50 percent, you can use humidifiers to raise it up to 60 percent. Keeping houseplants together and filling small containers with water where they are can also help the plant get the moisture it needs.

request for fertilizer

Anthurium can be fed with liquid fertilizers throughout the growing season. You can breed fertilizers with a high content of phosphorus for anthuriums. You can encourage anthurium blooms by using a phosphorus-rich fertilizer.

When does Anthurium bloom?

Although Anthuriums have magnificent heart-shaped leaves, their flowers are also quite beautiful. While anthuriums may seem like daredevils when viewed indoors, you can get your plants to bloom more than once.
Anthuriums bloom for 8 weeks or longer during the summer months. However, when the right conditions are provided, plants can be made to bloom all year round. If you find that the flowers are wilting after your plant has withered, you can prune off the wilted flowers so your plant can use its energy to make new leaves and flowers.

Although your anthurium has flowers when you buy it, you may lose them later. Although the flowers last about 2-3 months, you may find that your plants bloom 4-6 times a year. By keeping your plant healthy, you can make it bloom more.

To encourage your anthuriums to bloom, you need to make sure the flowers get plenty of sunlight, use the right anthurium fertilizer, and keep the humidity around 70 to 80 percent. However, you may find that your plants do not start flowering even if you create the right conditions. In this case, you should be patient and continue to provide suitable conditions for your plants.

How to propagate anthurium?

You can tell when your anthurium is ready to breed by structures called “aerial roots”. Anthurium roots usually have a fleshy texture and a tuberous appearance. You can propagate your plants once those roots start to rise above the potting soil. You can propagate your plant using aerial roots that start to rise above the soil like this:

• With a sharp tool, cut off the aerial roots or 15 cm long stem with 2-3 tufts of leaves on it. If you like, you can then dip the cut part into rooting hormone.
• Place the cut root or plant in your freshly prepared potting mix and water the soil well.
• Place the pot in a warm, bright place out of direct sunlight.

You can watch the new plant start growing in about 4-6 weeks.

How to plant anthurium?

Anthurium can be grown from seeds. However, when you grow Anthurium from a plant, you may have to wait 4 years for the plant to flower. The most suitable medium for planting anthurium seeds is moist vermiculite. Seeds can be sown 2-3 cm apart by pressing them into the vermiculite.

To speed up the process of seed germination, you can cover the pot with a transparent plastic bag. Then you can put a flower pot near the window. If you see that water has accumulated in the bag, you can open one side and let the plant breathe. If you start to see a plant growing from the seeds you planted, you can remove the bag that was placed over the pot.

Anthurium pot change

If you see that the roots of the anthurium are starting to crawl out of the pot and the aerial roots of the plant are growing, it’s time to change the pot. It is usually enough to change the pot for anthurium every two years. After removing the plant from the old pot, it can be planted in a pot about 5 cm larger.

It is important that you choose a new pot based on your watering habits. If you water too much, you should choose a clay pot so that water can seep out of the pot. Conversely, if you forget to water your plants, you can opt for ceramic or plastic pots to keep moisture in the soil. Regardless of the material of the pot, you must be careful when choosing a pot with more than one drainage hole.

When transplanting Anthurium, fill the new pot with about 1/3 of the potting soil. Then place the plant in soil and add soil to the level it was in the old pot. In the coming weeks, you can add some soil to the roots as the plant begins to form new aerial roots.

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