Anthurium andreanum, sometimes called the flamingo flower or painter's palette, is a versatile plant used extensively in amenity plantings, favoured by florists as a cut flower and popular as a houseplant.
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This exotic-looking plant tolerates a wide range of environmental conditions and will repay good care and regular feeding with a steady supply of flowers throughout the year.
After many years of dedication to their cultivation during the late 1970s in Australia, much was discovered about their care and successful growing, boosting the popularity of this very trendy plant.
A native of the South American jungles it will do well in most indoor situations as long as its few basic requirements are provided.
Like most house plants they do not like to be exposed to harsh sunlight through glass, placed in draughts or air conditioned or over-heated rooms.
Anthuriums comes from the family Araceae, which covers a thousand genera and about 1500 species.
Some of the better known members are the philodendrons, monsteras, calla lilies, dieffenbachias and caladiums.
Anthurium andreanum produces some flowers throughout the year although the main flush is in the warmer months, so to improve the flower production give them warmer conditions.
When moving plants from one position to another, place them with their leaves and pot at the same angle to the sun as they were before the move.
Flowers are grown in each leaf axil and a well-developed mature plant may carry from four to six flowers of varying ages at any one time.
Colours in the spathes range from purest white, pale green and all shades of pink to orange, deep red and variegated.
What we call the 'flower' is really not a flower but a complexity of the colourful modified, heart-shaped, leaf or spathe and the pencil-like profusion, the spadix, which rises from the base of the spathe.
This spadix is covered in hundreds of tiny brightly coloured flowers, which when pollinated, produce the seeds. The sequence of leaf, flowers and new leaf is maintained throughout the life cycle of the plant.
In their natural habitat Anthuriums grow in fibrous humus which collects in the forks of trees in warm tropical rainforests.
Therefore, they like a growing medium with a high organic content, good aeration, well-draining and moisture-retentive.
Given their tropical origins where daily rains fall on them then quickly run away, how to water this plant is of the utmost importance. Water should drain away quite freely.
In dry conditions like those caused by air conditioners either place the pots on trays of wet gravel or mist the leaves with water from time to time during the day. Never stand plants in saucers of water.
Any of numerous brands of potting mixes with balanced plant food in their formulation should grow these plants well.
A dusting of fertiliser alternated monthly with a watering of a liquid foliar fertiliser will keep them growing nicely. Don't use a fertiliser high in nitrogen.
Diary
July 20: APSTAS North West will visit a nature conservancy property at Lower Barrington, meeting at 11am. Details contact Drew 0488 402 210.
July 24: LHS Cacti & Succulent Group, Windmill Hill Hall, High Street, Launceston, (meeting room underneath), 7.30pm. Members and visitors welcome. Contact Pam 0427 637 208.
August 20: Australian Native Plant Society, Max Fry Hall, Gorge Road, Trevallyn, 7.30pm.
August 21: Launceston Horticultural Society, Windmill Hill Hall, High Street, Launceston, 8pm. Bob Reid, world renowned plant collector and breeder, with rare bulbs listed as one of his many botanical passions, is guest speaker.
